Ashes to Ashes
by DarthRandom
Summary: Heroes make a lot of sacrifices. Realizing a power he didn't ask for, Naruto learns that sacrifice is part of the job description. Torn between living a long and healthy life and being a hero, Naruto learns that choosing between life and a meaningful death isn't so hard after all.
1. Beginnings

Eh. This is kind of a writing experiment for me. Seeing how I fare at character development/background building through dialogue, and all that.

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Naruto Uzumaki was never a quitter.

Nobody would have thought less of him for giving up, though. An orphan who grew up in the mean streets of Los Angeles, Naruto had the deck stacked against him from the start. Mix in the fact that he was neither a genius nor a prodigious athlete, and his chances of moving up in life were made slimmer still.

The only thing that he had going for him was his robust physical health – he couldn't ever remember getting sick, and little things like cuts and scratches disappeared much faster for him.

That aside…he was just a mediocre student at a big, public high school where people didn't have time for him. He lived in a tiny studio apartment that he paid for by doing as many part-time and odd-jobs as he could. And he really didn't have much a social life, since all of his after-school time was spent making money so that he could pay the next month's rent, buy groceries, and pay his other bills. Naruto preferred living alone to living in an orphanage, though. Getting legal emancipation hadn't been the easiest thing in the world, but honestly, for Naruto, the chance to take care of himself was worth it.

Still didn't mean that Naruto never got lonely. It didn't mean that he never considered giving up, or going to some kind of foster home, or just _something_ different, something that didn't feel so hopeless sometimes.

But he still dreamed of making it big. To be somebody that everyone knew and loved. He wanted to live the rags to riches story. There were big dreams coming out of his little apartment.

There were occasions when he felt something stirring inside of him, urging him into temptation, and into taking the easy way out. He usually was pretty good about ignoring those urges; he knew that giving in was a one-way road to an empty life.

Sometimes, however, when you just want to make something of your life, you make mistakes. Some are bigger than others.

Naruto's mistake could be characterized as a big one.

"Alright man! Give us all the cash in the register!"

Naruto could not believe that he was helping them do this. Well, he could, but he had no way of knowing that it would go this far.

What had started off with a serious, if fairly sad, conversation about being poor with no way out had turned into angry planning, and what Naruto had thought was a half-jokingly made plan to rob a convenience store for some quick cash.

Too bad he never noticed the gleam in his friend's eye when they started joking around about committing a robbery.

An impatient voice shook him from his thoughts.

"Naruto whatchu doin man!? Grab the fuckin money so we can get outta here!"

"Alright Mikey, shit. I'm on it."

Putting the money in his backpack, Naruto could see the terrified face of the cashier, even with his ski mask restricting his field of vision. He just prayed that the young man behind the register didn't do anything stupid, to make this fucked up situation even worse. Naruto didn't even know when or how Mikey got a hold of the gun that he was using to terrify the person working the register.

"Hey! Hey! Why you keep lookin at the phone!? You plannin on callin the cops!?"

Looking up and seeing Mikey pointing his pistol straight at the cashier's head, Naruto saw everything fall apart. Mikey would shoot, they would run, and then they would get caught. Bam. Lives ruined. And his dream of becoming more than just a poor LA nobody would be ruined with it. Not to mention the fact that they would then be guilty of having killed an innocent man just so they could make a quick buck.

"Mikey, just calm down man! Look, he's just scared, seein as you got a fuckin burner pointed at him. Don't do anythin stupid and get us both fucked, ya hear?" Naruto had both of his hands up now, trying desperately to calm his friend down.

Seeing, or at least assuming, that he had gotten his point across, Naruto finished loading the cash into his bag. As soon as the last wad left his hand, he let Mikey know, and they turned and bolted out of the gas station, never looking back.

'_Hopefully this doesn't bite me in the ass…'_

_The Next Day_

No matter how guilty he felt over the crime that he had helped commit last night, Naruto had to admit, that everything seemed to be just fine. He had actually hauled in a fair amount of cash the other night, he had plans to go through some of the money with Mikey later, and, best of all, no cops had shown up at school to arrest his ass. That still didn't stop him from taking a good look around every chance he got, or from jumping every time someone even got within touching distance of him.

The only thing that could have made his day smoother would be school getting cancelled. Maybe he should have just dropped out like Mikey had told him to…

"Naruto? Are you alright?"

The shy, but concerned, whisper of his friend, Jennifer Walters, shook him out of his school-free daydream.

"Hm? What was that?"

Sighing softly, but without any real exasperation, the brown haired girl expressed her concern once more.

"I asked if you were okay. You know, you should really try to stop daydreaming so much in school. You'd probably do so much better if you did."

Turning her attention back to the front, lest their teacher hear them whispering and reprimand them in front of the class, Jennifer couldn't help but shake the feeling that something funny was going on.

At the same time, Naruto was beginning to shake free his anxiety, and think that maybe, just maybe, things would be okay after all.

Of course, that's when, for him, everything went to hell.

Hearing a knock on the door, the whole class looked as one, to see their teacher opening the door for a rather burly looking police officer. The vast majority of the faces were either confused, or interested in the drama that would be sure to unfold. Naruto was not among the vast majority. In fact, he would later describe his facial expression as "probably some strange cross between nonchalant and confident."

It turned out that his facial expression at the time was a very reasonable mix between "scared shitless," and "as nervous as can fucking be."

Looking at the teacher for just a moment, the officer merely said that he was looking for one "Mr. Uzumaki."

Naruto would always wonder why, at that very moment, he didn't just jump out of a window and run away as fast as he could.

Again, at the time, the reason was clear. He didn't know if he would be able to control his bladder if he had to run, as terrified as he was. His anxiety only grew when he saw the officer and his teacher have a brief conversation, which ended in his instructor pointing towards him, and the officer doing the same in askance.

At the officer's request, Naruto got out of his seat, and despondently walked out of class, with Jennifer looking on in worry.

_Police Station_

Upon arrival at the station, the first thing that Naruto did was look around for his pal, Mikey. He wasn't disappointed, seeing his friend waiting with another officer, seeming as if he wanted to do anything but make eye contact with Naruto.

He saw Mikey and the cop exchange a few words, and while he couldn't make out everything, he was able to hear just enough to know exactly _what_ had happened.

"Yeah. That's him." His friend's voice was quiet, and his answer clear. Naruto found his mouth moving of its own accord.

"What do ya mean 'that's him!?'" Mikey turned his head, ever so slightly, and shrugged, as if he had had no choice.

"Sorry man, but I can't go to jail."

Reeling from this betrayal, and how easy it seemed for his now-former friend sell him out, Naruto didn't really know what he was feeling. Actually, that's a lie. He knew exactly what he was feeling.

He was feeling _fucking_ _angry_. He couldn't see anything past the red haze that had come over his eyes, and he couldn't physically feel anything, except the white hot sensation of his anger. He didn't even notice that his friend had been led away. All he knew was that someone who he had thought was one of his best friends (which was by default, really) had sold him out to save his own skin.

And how it burned. And thinking about it didn't do anything but make him feel hotter, angrier. Bit by bit, his anger increased until it reached a fine simmer.

And then, the world exploded.

Knocked off of his feet, Naruto had no clue what was happening. One minute, he was on his feet, and the next, he was on his back, with people running and screaming all around him. And his arms hurt more than they had after any ass kicking that he had ever experienced.

What in the world was happening?

Turning his head, Naruto could hear the officer that had led him there screaming bloody murder, yelling for help.

"Oh God! I'm on fire! God, help me!"

Upon hearing that last pained yell, Naruto's brain finally caught up with what his eyes were seeing: the police officer was burning alive. Strangely enough, the fire was a deep purple in color.

In a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life, Naruto decided against trying to help the man. Instead, he stumbled to his feet, did his best to ignore the unbelievable pain in his arms, and ran for his life, only looking back once. But that one look was all that his mind needed to memorize the sight of the police station, drowning in purple flame.

XXXXX

Naruto was asked about what happened at the police station, as a potential witness. Of course, he had nothing to say, because he really had no clue about what had happened. And, given the rather unexplainable nature of the tragedy, investigators were inclined to believe him. After getting him to the hospital to get the rather serious burns on his arms looked at, they let him go. At the time, Naruto had no clue why he was being let go, but accepted it as some stroke of good fortune. He would learn later that there are no coincidences.

When he next went to class, Naruto was the center of attention. He was 'that guy who got pulled by the cops.' This was especially true because of the fact that the same day, a police station had burned to the ground. Well, that's what he was to most kids, anyways. Jennifer was a different story.

"Naruto? Are you okay? What happened?"

Naruto answered in an uncharacteristically quiet manner, simply saying that it was a "personal problem." Jennifer was unsatisfied, but willing to let it go for the time being, until she spotted something just under Naruto's bright orange sleeves.

They looked like scars. Burn scars. Immediately adopting a horrified expression, Jennifer, in an unusually bold move, took Naruto's hand and led him outside, despite his confused protests.

Taking him to a bench outside and sitting both of them down, Jennifer asked Naruto to tell him what happened. His response to that was short and to the point.

"No." He said, while shaking his head slowly.

"Naruto… please? I'm your friend. You can tell me anything. I'm worried about you. Even more worried, now that I've seen those marks on your arm." A light touch on Naruto's forearm.

"I… No. If I tell you everything…you'll just realize that your dad was right about me, all along."

Jennifer's facial expression softened in sympathy, as she began to _think_ that she understood what had happened.

"Naruto, I could never think that. No matter what dad says, you're not just some punk. You're a good guy, and you're my friend, who's always there to pick me up when I'm down. Come on. I want to help you Naruto."

"I… I…" Letting out a drawn out sigh, Naruto acquiesced to his friend's request, and started slowly.

"Mikey and I robbed a store. I don't even know how it happened… We were just jokin around, havin a good time, and then he said that we could rob like a gas station or somethin, make a quick buck. I thought we were still just playin around, so I went along with it. Next thing I know, we're in the store, and Mikey's got a fuckin gun pointed at the cashier's head."

"I… don't know what to say, Naruto."

Jennifer had wide eyes at this point. Sure, she had expected something along the lines of a minor crime, but to actually hear that her normally sweet friend was part of an armed robbery? Nothing could have prepared her for that.

"Ya see? I knew this would happen. But we were just… stuck. There wasn't a way out for us. Don't you get it!? Nothin was ever gonna change!"

"No, no. I understand, Naruto. I know you have it hard, and I know you were desperate. I don't hate you, Naruto. Please, tell me how you got that scar."

And that was all it took for the floodgates to open. For almost the past week, Naruto had had no way to vent his anger, or tell anyone about how distraught he was. Now, his only real friend was offering to listen? Naruto Uzumaki might be a tough kid, but he was only human.

"The day that cop came to school and grabbed me… I was so scared. It felt like the world was ending. I was about to become another nobody from L.A. Just another small time crook. And you… you're so smart and all. You were gonna leave me behind and go off to bigger and better things."

Taking a breath to compose himself, Naruto cursed when he felt his eyes starting to water, as the emotional toll of what he had witnessed started to take hold.

"They took me to the station, and I saw Mikey there. I thought that, even though it looked shitty, at least we were in it together, ya know? But then I heard that bastard ID me to the cops, and I knew that he sold me out. I… I never woulda snitched on him, Jen. Never! And he just left me out to dry. I just remember bein so angry. Angrier than I thought I could get. And then… I don't even know what happened. All of a sudden I was flat on my ass, and I looked up, and I saw a cop on fire. He was on _fire_ Jen. I didn't know what to do! I didn't! I swear! And, shit… everything was on fire, and I… and the fire was fuckin purple! I… I didn't help the guy. I just fuckin ran. Like a coward. Yeah, I know he was about to arrest my ass, but he didn't deserve to go like that. I… shit! And my arms hurt so bad…"

Seeing the boy on the verge of a breakdown, Jennifer put off what he said about his arms, and did the only thing that came to mind. She hugged him, and held him tightly.

And he grabbed her like she was his lifeline. The shy girl didn't know it, but Jennifer Walters made a friend for life that day.

At the time, the only thing that mattered to Jennifer was helping out the boy who sat down next to a lonely girl at lunch, and asked if she needed a friend.

XXXXX

Naruto couldn't be happier. His best friend was finally receiving her degree from the UCLA School of Law, and he was there to celebrate it with her.

It had been many years since that ill-fated day at the police station, but Naruto and Jennifer had remained extremely close.

She was well on her way to a promising career in law, having been a member of the Order of the Coif, which indicated her place as on the nation's top legal scholars.

Naruto had joined the military, and served two combat tours in Iraq as a member of the United States Marine Corps. Upon his return, he had enrolled in a local community college, looking at a degree in business management.

None of that mattered right now. Right now, the only thing that Naruto could focus on was the brilliant smile on Jennifer's face.

"Hey! There she is!" Naruto said with a laugh, as the now grown up Jennifer Walters jumped into his arms, smiling all the way.

"Naruto! Ha haaa, I did it!"

"Yeah you did! You wanna do dinner? Italian?"

"Who would turn down dinner with their best friend? But you're buying!"

Jennifer laughed again, but then trailed off, and looked at her friend with a soft look in her eye.

"You know, this is only the second happiest I've ever been."

"Oh yeah? And what's the first?"

Blushing prettily but keeping eye contact, Jennifer told the truth.

"The happiest I've ever felt was seeing you in the airport, when you came back safely."

Unable to fight down the atomic blush that had erupted on his face, Naruto settled for spinning his giggly friend around in his arms.

XXXXX

Naruto could not believe what was happening. He felt sick to the stomach. His best friend, Jennifer Walters, had just been shot, and had needed a blood transfusion from her visiting cousin, Bruce Banner, otherwise known as the Incredible Hulk. It hadn't even been half a year since she had graduated…

Holding on to her hand as tightly as he could, Naruto could only seethe. And his anger only grew when two armed men barged into the hospital room, obviously looking to finish his friend off.

"Your luck's run out kid. Say your prayers."

Then, Naruto felt a white hot anger that he had only experienced once before. Only this time, it was directed solely at the two men who had come to kill his best friend.

Using his training in disarming enemy combatants, Naruto jumped out of the chair and quickly pushed one of the thug's arms to the side and pulled his body towards himself, ignoring the gunshot that rang out when the man pulled the trigger in reaction. Using the momentum of the pull, Naruto threw the man into his fellow assassin, who had yet to draw his own weapon, knocking both of their firearms to the ground, and throwing both men to the floor.

Rushing over and knocking the first man out with a swift kick to the face, Naruto moved on to the next opponent. Picking the still disoriented man up by his jacket, punching him across the jaw once for good measure, and pushing him against the wall, Naruto bared his teeth and ground out his question.

"Who are you!?"

"Heh, do your worst, pussy." The man spit on Naruto's face.

This time, Naruto let his anger out. And this one act changed everything.

Purple flames burst to life around Naruto's hands, dancing onto the thug's jacket, the heat making the man sweat uncontrollably, to say the least.

To say more than the least, the man also began screaming without end at the burning pain that had come with the fire. He threw out any and all information that he had, including the fact that they were paid to kill Jennifer Walters by Nicholas Trask, who had crossed paths with her father, Sheriff William Walters. He babbled and spat gibberish, begging for Naruto to stop burning him, but it was all for naught. Naruto couldn't stop, because he didn't know how to. And even worse, he didn't even know if he really wanted to.

At the same time as all of this was happening, Jennifer had managed to regain consciousness. Looking on in shock at the scene taking place before her, she almost failed to notice a man on the ground, bleeding from the nose, and slowly moving his hand to a gun not even a yard away from him.

But only almost. Still somewhat in shock over Naruto's flaming hands, Jennifer was barely able to connect the man on the ground with the man Naruto had pinned to the wall. Putting two and two together, she came to the correct conclusion that Naruto had been fighting those two men, and with that, realized that the man on the ground, who had all but reached the gun by then, was planning on shooting her blond friend. In fact, his slow pace seemed to be born more out of fear of the blonde's strange power, rather than hesitation with regards to taking his life.

Jennifer Walters was not an angry person. In fact, she was better described as a rather docile woman, keeping her anger to herself (and ranting to Naruto later) when she did get angry. But some goon trying to shoot her best friend?

That was something that she could get angry about.

"NO**OO!**"

Startled, Naruto dropped the man he was holding, and turned around to see who, or what, was the source of that angry, vaguely inhuman shout. The thug he was burning had long since passed out from the pain of having flames dancing around his neck, and Naruto paid him no mind.

The man on the ground turned in horror, only to see a tall, muscular, and most importantly, _green_ woman standing above him with an enraged expression on her face.

"**Now let's see how tough you are – against me!**"

With a yell, Jennifer picked the man up with both hands, carrying him overhead, for just a brief moment. And then, she threw him at the wall.

He hit the wall with a sickening crack, and slumped to the ground. He didn't get up. There was a noticeable dent where he had made contact.

"J-Jen? Holy shit! That was… fuckin unbelievable! And, you, you're green, and so… so _tall_! You're like... some kind of She-Hulk! Jen? Jennifer? What's up?"

Naruto's list of observations turned into a string of questions because at the moment, Jennifer Walters had turned her attention to him, and was walking towards him with a rather angry look on her face. Her eyes were wild, and she looked as if she had lost all higher functions.

When asked about it later, Naruto would alternate between the terms feral and savage.

The only feeling that Jennifer knew was anger. Because of that, she lunged at the only chance she had to vent some of it.

"Jen? Je – HGH!"

She hit him with a savage punch to the body that probably should have killed him. And it would have, had Naruto been a normal human. Luckily for him (and for Jennifer), it only knocked him out, as he too was sent careening into another, previously undented section of the hospital room wall.

Her anger slowly subsiding, Jennifer felt her mind returning to her. Unfortunately, as she got a clearer handle on everything that had happened, she immediately remembered punching her closest friend into a wall.

"Oh my god! Naruto?! Naruto! Oh god! Somebody help! Please! Oh g-god…" Her voice steadily grew more hysterical, until she started crying outright.

Responding to the commotion, which had really only taken place over the span of a couple minutes, a nurse rushed into the room, only to find 3 still bodies, one of them with severe burns along his neck, and a sobbing woman.

"W-what the hell happened here!? S-s-shit!"

And with that, the nurse ran off, and Jennifer could only assume that emergency treatment was on the way.

As she continued her distraught sobbing, Jennifer could only pray that Naruto was alright.

XXXXX

Waking up in the hospital was definitely one of those things that Naruto thought sucked. Not as bad as being pulled by the cops, but still a pretty bad feeling. Although, at least this time, he supposed, things seemed more interesting than hospitals usually were.

For example, there was a fairly large, bald African-American man with an eye patch standing uncomfortably close to his bed.

That helped him forget about the insane ache he felt all along his torso.

"Mr. Uzumaki. Good to see you're finally awake. We've got a lot of things to talk about."

"Is Jennifer okay!? Tell me!" His face was full of wild concern.

Unperturbed by the young man's outburst, the man named Nick Fury simply told him that she had experienced a full recovery, and that she was actually staying with them.

"And uh, who exactly, are you?"

The man just turned away.

"All of your questions will be answered in due time, Mr. Uzumaki. If you're feeling alright, I can take you to see your friend."

Deciding to table his questions for later, Naruto stood up, dressed only in a hospital gown, and followed the African-American man through the strangest hospital he had ever been in.

For one, there were all kinds of suits around, which made Naruto think that this was some kind of special government agency hospital.

Second, the fact that someone singled him out, came to his room, and was waiting for him to wake up made him a little suspicious.

Naruto really couldn't figure out what the government would want from him. He was thinking of maybe trying to reach out to that Xavier guy, maybe figure out if that strange fire made him a mutant. He definitely did not want the government to do anything extreme in trying to figure out where his powers came from. Naruto would rather just cooperate and be done with it.

Following the stern looking man into what he could only assume was a hospital room, Naruto was surprised to see that he had actually been led into some kind of waiting room, judging by all of the chairs against the walls and, more importantly, the absolute lack of beds or medical equipment.

Giving the room a quick once over, Naruto saw his friend sitting despondently, with, if Naruto recognized him correctly, Bruce Banner of all people, sitting next to her and holding her hand.

For her part, Jennifer was staring at the drab grey floor, seemingly in her own little world. Most importantly to Naruto, she looked like she hadn't smiled in a while. That just would not do.

"Chin-up, Jennifer! Why so glum?"

He opened his arms wide, as if offering her a hug.

Unsurprisingly, she took him up on that offer. Jumping out of her seat, Jennifer sprinted into the blonde's arms, grabbing onto him tightly. Naruto could only reciprocate, glad that she seemed to be physically okay.

As their embrace dragged on, Bruce Banner did what he felt he had to.

He coughed rather loudly into his hand. This had the intended effect of making the two friends reluctantly separate, both of them with healthy blushes on their cheeks.

Chuckling sheepishly, Naruto offered his hand in greeting.

"Hehehe… Sorry about that. Dr. Banner, right? Nice to meet you"

Accepting the handshake with an easy grin, the scientist promptly embarrassed his cousin further.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to finally meet you. Every time we have a conversation, Jennifer can't stop talking about you."

"Bruce!" Jennifer shot in, face even redder than it had been before.

Adopting a more serious tone, Bruce continued. "And thanks for keeping her safe. At the hospital, I mean."

With a serious expression of his own, Naruto just shrugged off the praise. Jennifer was his friend, after all. What was he supposed to do? Not protect her?

Turning to the man with the eye-patch, Naruto moved on to another pressing issue.

"Not to make this weird, but… could I have my clothes now? I feel a little underdressed."

XXXXX

"So, let me get this straight. Your name is Nick Fury, and you're in charge of a government op named SHIELD, which, by the way, is a pretty cool acronym. Did you guys come up with the acronym first, and then figure out what it stood for? Or was that just a coincidence? Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah. So SHIELD handles the Avengers and deals with all kinds of other crazy shit, all the while staying under the radar, so regular folks don't know about you. Basically, you guys are kind of like some kind of super CIA. On steroids. Right?"

Looking at Naruto with a nonplussed expression, Nick Fury suppressed the urge to sigh, and just nodded his head.

"And… uh… what exactly do you want from me and Jen?"

"I think that you can be valuable assets. But you need to be in control of your power. For Ms. Walters, the obvious choice is Dr. Banner. For you? Well, we don't quite know what you are just yet."

Taking a moment to ponder the statement, Naruto found that he didn't quite agree with the director.

"I don't really know, director… The two times that I've used my… 'power,' I hurt people. And I hurt them really bad. I… I burned a man to death… I don't know if that's a risk I want to take."

Looking Naruto right in the eye, Nick Fury gave the final push.

"You didn't just hurt the others, Mr. Uzumaki. Everyone that you've touched with your power is dead. The man you burned in the hospital didn't make it. The other two men at the police station, didn't make it. If you don't take control of your power, then you will only be a danger to those around you. And SHIELD takes care of threats, one way or another."

Devastated, Naruto slumped into his seat, not even paying attention to the threat. Those other guys died too? He never wanted that.

But then he realized something. His head shot up.

"How did you know that? That there were two other guys in the station? Why wait!? Why wait if you knew what happened!?"

If Nick Fury felt anything, it didn't show. "We weren't able to say with 100% that you were the cause of the fire. Especially because you yourself were burned in the incident. Now, we can do something about it. We covered up the incident, and continued to monitor you. It paid off."

Getting up from his seat at the conference table, Nick Fury kept talking.

"We're planning on taking you to someone who might be able to identify the source of your powers. After that, we'll work on turning you into a force for good. Who knows? Maybe you'll get to join the Avengers one day. And don't worry about finding us. We'll contact you."

As Fury turned to leave, Naruto interrupted. He didn't think that the conversation was over. "Why are you actin like that? I haven't agreed to anything yet."

Without turning back, Nick Fury simply smirked.

"Haven't you?" And then he walked away, leaving Naruto alone in the conference room.

"Che. Okay, that was pretty slick. But I got the last word!"

XXXXX

Opening the door to his modest apartment, Naruto was surprised to see Jennifer waiting on his couch, mug full of tea in hand. It was deep into the night, and she looked like she had been there for a while.

"Jen? What're you doin here? Everything alright? It's pretty late, ya know." While Naruto had given her spare keys, she rarely visited him without some kind of notice in advance. Her presence now was reason enough for him to be concerned.

"Naruto…" Trailing off when Naruto took a seat next to her on the sofa, Jennifer put her mug down on a side table, and allowed him to pull her into his side. Now resting her head on his shoulder, she continued.

"I don't know how you can just forget about the fact that I-I hurt you. I…" Naruto interrupted her with a flick to her nose.

"Jen… shut up. Of course I can forget it about. Sure, it smarted a little bit, but really, I'm okay. And even if I wasn't, we've been friends forever Jen. You think one accident can change that? I'm with ya to the very end, Jen. If you can stick by me, even after I had just helped in a robbery or after I… after I killed a man, after I turned and ran from a man on fire… well, I would be one worthless piece of shit if I couldn't come back to you after one punch."

Yawning loudly, Naruto stood up from the couch, leaving Jennifer rather disappointed at the loss of warmth. Still, as far as her life experiences went, Naruto reassuring her of their friendship would definitely go up there as one of the best.

"Well, I think it's time to turn in. I'm exhausted. You comin?"

Caught off guard, with a face redder than a tomato, Jennifer offered a quick but well-thought out response.

"W-w-what? You? M-me? T-together?"

Raising an eyebrow, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well… yeah. What's sharing the bed once between friends?"

Still flaming at the cheeks, Jennifer nodded wordlessly, allowed herself to be pulled up, and followed him to his bed.

"Y-yeah.. as friends."

Feeling oddly disappointed, Jennifer curled into Naruto's body, and let his body heat lull her to a pleasant sleep.

XXXXX

Well. That's that. Felt slow to develop, but like I said, I was working on character development without directly broadcasting anything – I think I typed out Naruto's direct thoughts only once. The pace of the writing/story will increase as the story after this prologue/foundational chapter. At any rate, let me know where you thought I could improve.

Note: After some time, it's become clearer to me that the first chapter doesn't *clearly* mark this as a crossover, since, here, I don't take the usual approaches to this kind of thing. Those being: Naruto is immortal, Naruto dies and is given a second chance, or Naruto gets sent to another world by accident/some enemy. Hopefully, however, in later chapters the connection will become a little more visible.


	2. History Lesson

More foundation building stuff, and more attempts to develop characters through dialogue. Not really sure how I feel about this chapter as a whole, but I couldn't come up with anything that was more to my liking.

Read and Review

XXXXX

This had to be some kind of nightmare. It had to be, for the sake of his sanity. The last thing that Naruto remembered was lying down next to Jennifer and then…

He opened his eyes to a scene taken straight out of doomsday literature. Or rather, taken straight out of what happened long _after_ the world had ended.

The city was San Francisco. That much he was sure of. The decrepit Golden Gate Bridge was a dead giveaway, despite the fact that the actual bridge itself looked like it had been the victim of some sort of bombing, what with all of the small craters and cracks dotting the road. Adding to his initial confusion had been the cars, which didn't look disturbed, only aged. They, like the bridge, had seemingly fallen victim to time, rusting into uselessness, what once had been undoubtedly vibrant colors dulled and chipped away.

The thing was, none of the cars looked out of place. Aging aside, everything looked just like it would in a normal traffic jam. None of them were overturned. None of them were damaged. They were just lined up, unmoving, as if everyone had just vanished one day.

The city proper was mostly the same. Some buildings had collapsed, and perhaps one or two looked like they had been the targets of some kind of arson. But there was no rubble.

If the last thing Naruto remembered was lying down in bed, he figured that it would make sense if this was all some kind of crazy lucid dream. After all, how would this kind of thing just happen without him noticing?

"But… shouldn't I be able to do somethin if I know I'm dreamin? And why would I even have a weird-ass dream like this...?" Naruto shrugged, figuring that he would wake up in no time. Maybe he would change his eating habits – not eat instant ramen as a late night snack whenever he got hungry. Sure, he liked the taste, but he didn't know if a snack was worth dealing with this sort of thing.

No matter how long he walked, he never ran into anybody. Funnily enough, he hadn't changed direction once, as if he were being pulled somewhere. But he didn't think that was it. Nah, he just didn't feel like turning, that's all. Why turn and risk getting lost, in a city that he didn't live in, and therefore didn't know?

"Shit… Hope I wake up soon."

Tilting his head upwards, Naruto noticed something very strange. The sky was black. Pitch black. But this didn't seem to affect anything. In fact, everything else just looked like it would on a rather sunny day. The sharp contrast between the bright, daytime cityscape and the pitch black sky did not help his confusion. Really, all it did was hurt his eyes.

"Woah…. How did I not notice that?" Feeling worse and worse about this whole situation, Naruto started to think about how to wake himself up.

That's when he heard it. And felt it. It was as if a tornado just appeared out of nowhere, and he was caught inside of it. Strange thing was, he wasn't being violently thrown around by gale force winds. The wind whipped around for an instant, and then it was gone. But then it happened again.

And again. One more time.

Each time, Naruto was pushed back what felt like several feet, and he was forced to squint his eyes due to the force of the wind. He hadn't ever heard of a tornado that stopped and started in even, rhythmic increments.

Taking his brief second of wind-free eyesight to look up once more, all Naruto saw were _teeth_. And they were _fucking huge_.

"W-what the fuck?!" With a start, Naruto realized that those tornados were just the exhalations of some kind of monster. A monster that he couldn't actually see aside from its teeth and, now that it had opened its gaping maw, its tongue.

Naruto could only stare in absolute shock as the monster's fang-lined mouth opened wider and wider, until finally reaching a stop. And then there was fire.

"No!" Jumping up with a scream, Naruto was surprised to find that he had broken out into a cold sweat, and that he was still in his apartment, with a now thoroughly startled Jennifer. Touching his hands to his face to make sure that he was still alive, Naruto continued to take in large, heaving breaths, all the while trying to come to terms with what had been a _very_ vivid nightmare.

Feeling a light touch on his shoulder, Naruto turned his head to see the concerned face of his friend.

"Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare? Was it… was it about your time in the military?" Of course Jennifer had heard about veterans returning with PTSD, but she had desperately hoped that Naruto somehow wasn't one of them. If he was, that would mean that he had been suffering for a while, and she hadn't been there to help.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, his nightmare was very clearly _not_ about fighting in a war. In fact, to Naruto, it seemed pretty clear that his nightmare was about getting killed by some crazy Godzilla spin off.

Even though the first two questions had relatively obvious answers, such as, "no," and "yes," respectively, and the third question had been delivered somewhat untactfully, Naruto welcomed the concern all the same.

Shaking his head to center himself, Naruto responded truthfully.

"Yeah, I had a pretty intense dream. I… It wasn't even a nightmare until the very end, to be honest with ya. At first I was just walking through San Fran, but without any people, and, like, 100 years in the future or somethin. I don't really know. But the sky was just… black. Like nothin, even though everything else was lit up like it was any regular afternoon. And then I saw these teeth, just… fuckin massive teeth… Just before I woke up, there was fire. Just like in every other shitty situation I've been in… there was fire." Letting out a lengthy sigh, Naruto pushed his right hand through his short, spiky blond hair, letting the weight of his upper body rest on his left arm, which was propping him on the mattress.

"Man, I hope those SHIELD guys get back to me soon. Maybe they can help me figure out what the fuck is wrong with me."

Wrapping her arms around him shyly, Jennifer felt like he needed her to say something right then. So she did.

"Naruto, there's nothing wrong with you. You're the sweetest, nicest guy I know, and… I know that you'll get through this. You always do." Naruto just responded with a heartfelt smile that made Jennifer duck her head in embarrassment.

"Sorry for wakin you up. C'mon, let's go back to sleep."

XXXXX

With bleary eyes, Naruto noticed what sounded suspiciously like somebody knocking on his door. When he thought about it again, he decided that it was probably best to answer, just in case. Getting out of bed and ignoring Jennifer's sleepy moan, Naruto responded to the third set of sharp raps on his door.

It turned out that Naruto really didn't have to wait long at all for SHIELD to get back in contact with him. They had actually sent somebody to his apartment, just the day after he had met Nick Fury. That somebody was one Bruce Banner.

Now, because Naruto was living in a studio apartment, Dr. Banner could see almost the entirety of the apartment's interior from the doorway. That included the bed in which his still sleeping cousin lay in just a white t-shirt and sweatpants, neither of which seemed to fit her at all well. Raising an eyebrow in interest, Bruce Banner turned his attention to the young man that had opened the door.

"Mr. Uzumaki, good to see you again. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

Raising an eyebrow of his own, Naruto asked the first question that sprung to mind.

"SHIELD's got the Incredible Hulk doing messenger duty? Or is something really serious happening? And call me Naruto. Mr. Uzumaki makes me feel old."

With an amused tone, Bruce explained: "Ha… I wish. It would definitely be less stressful than all of the other things I get pulled into. No, I actually volunteered to grab both you and Jennifer today, seeing as Jennifer's my cousin and you're good friends with her. I _was_ going to grab you first, and then swing around to Jennifer's place, but that's obviously unnecessary. Good thing I decided to come here first."

Responding to the man's chuckle in kind, Naruto opened his mouth to continue their friendly banter, but was interrupted by the awakening groan of the lone female in the apartment.

"Grn… Naruto?"

The voice that responded was most definitely not Naruto's. In fact, it sounded a lot like…

"Bruce?!" Jennifer could only imagine how red her face was, given how embarrassed she felt.

Responding to her embarrassed yell with a happy wave, Bruce Banner continued to have fun at his cousin's expense.

"Hey, Jen. You talked about Naruto a lot, but, you never told that you two were so… involved." Saying this with a sly look on his face, Dr. Banner couldn't help but feel a little guilty. But hey, he needed to have some fun too, right?

Laughing out loud when Jennifer covered her face with the bed sheets, the occasionally-green man looked back at the blond.

"Director Fury would like to talk to you. He filled me on the basics. And hey, I know what it's like to hurt people unintentionally. It gets better."

Taking the man's word for it, Naruto gave the man a kind smile, having decided that kindness must run in the Banner DNA.

XXXXX

When he walked into what he assumed was Nick Fury's office, Naruto was a little surprised to see a rather regal looking, middle aged man, dressed in what Naruto could only conclude was some kind of circus outfit, sitting in one of the chairs opposite the SHIELD director. The two seemed to be engaged in a somewhat serious conversation.

"Uh… am I interrupting something? You did want to talk to me, right?"

Both men turned to face the young man. The circus man spoke first.

"No. We were actually just talking about you, Mr. Uzumaki. My name is Stephen Strange, although some know me as the Sorcerer Supreme. I am here to help you."

A pregnant pause followed Strange's introduction. The two seated men assumed that Naruto was thinking about how to react, considering that he had just met a man who had introduced himself as a sorcerer.

They were only partially correct.

"So… is that your ringmaster title? Sorcerer Supreme? I guess that's pretty circus-y. Uh… Director Fury, when you said 'valuable asset,' I thought you meant that I would use my powers for good. Not that I would be sent to join the circus." He said this all with a straight face, indicating that everything he had just said was in all seriousness.

Dr. Strange merely let out a quiet chuckle, and began speaking again, this time, making an effort to make it clear that he was not, in fact, part of a circus.

"No, Mr. Uzumaki. I was quite serious when I spoke earlier. I am the Sorcerer Supreme of this reality, tasked with observing the world, and protecting it from malicious supernatural forces. And I do believe that your abilities are rooted in the supernatural."

Clearing his throat, Naruto continued to make an excellent first impression.

"Oh. Okay. So… magic? Are you gonna turn me into some badass Harry Potter? Sorry… but how are you so sure that I'm not just one of those mutants?"

Nick Fury decided that now would be a good time to make his presence known again, both to answer the blonde's last question, and to prevent him from spouting anymore nonsense.

"I can answer that. We've already taken the liberty of contacting Charles Xavier. You may have heard of him and his Institute. He confirmed to us that you do not have the 'X-gene.' After that, Dr. Strange was the obvious person to contact."

Nodding slowly, Naruto moved on.

"So, Doctor… when do we start?"

Surprised by the blonde's abrupt transition into a seemingly more serious persona, Nick Fury showed nothing but the stern expression that Naruto suspected was frozen onto his face.

The director of SHIELD had appearances to keep, after all.

Stephen Strange, on the other hand, simply took note of how well Naruto was taking everything, all things considered.

"Well, when you look at all of the crazy shit that happens in the world now… magic isn't that hard to believe, I guess. I mean, mutations that give people superpowers? Radiation that gives people superpowers? A billionaire with a robot suit that basically gives him superpowers? Makes sense that there's magic that gives people superpowers, too. Shit, what doesn't give people superpowers these days? Am I right?... No?"

Neither of the older men reacted to Naruto's admittedly poor attempt at humor, and instead decided to move the conversation forward.

"We can begin immediately, young Naruto. Perhaps you should brace yourself. This experience can be rather disorienting the first time."

"Wait, don't I ge-" Before Naruto could finish, both he and the sorcerer were enveloped in light, and they disappeared.

Nick Fury had no reaction, and simply left the room in search of an aspirin. Listening to Naruto talk had given him a minor headache, apparently.

XXXXX

"-t to talk to Jennifer first? What? What the hell was that? Where are we?"

The neurosurgeon said nothing immediately, instead gesturing to the shorter, distinctly balder man nearby. Nodding once, the shorter man left, and the Sorcerer Supreme took a seat in a rather plush looking chair, signaling Naruto to do the same.

Once the blond had taken his seat, the older man began speaking.

"Naruto, I must be direct with you. Even if Charles Xavier had not determined that you were not a mutant, it still would have been clear that your power was not the result of a natural mutation. There is… a bad darkness around you, Naruto. Before I continue, I must know: are you positive that your last name, by blood, is Uzumaki?"

Taken aback by the grave tone of voice that the Sorcerer Supreme had adopted, Naruto decided that it was best he be completely serious.

"As far as I know." However Naruto was expecting the man to react, a tight grimace was not high on his list.

"Is that a problem?"

Exhaling briefly, Stephen Strange decided to be blunt.

"Yes, Naruto. Yes it is. Because it means that your power, Naruto, is the result of human greed."

XXXXX

Under any other circumstances, Naruto would have been very interested in the fact that he had walked out of the Sorcerer Supreme's home, and ended up right in his own apartment. Given the context, however, Naruto felt like he had the right to feel a little glum. Or a lot glum. Really, just downright depressed would be a more accurate description.

"Shit… Shit! God, why the fuck!? Fuck!"

Depression quickly turned into rage, which Naruto proceeded to express all over his own apartment. When he had calmed down, there was quite a bit of broken glass littering the floor, and his wooden dining table was now cracked and overturned.

He thought about what Strange had told him regarding the history of his family, and the folly that had led them to their doom.

"_It is not your fault, young man. Rather, it is the fault of your ancestors. You see, Uzumaki is an old name, a forgotten name. In an ancient time, your family was tasked with a great burden. Much of the history has been lost, but what we do know is information of great importance."_

_At this point, Naruto had functionally been rendered mute. Not that he was even capable of coming up with anything to say. To learn that his power was born out of sin, and that his last name wasn't just a token of the parents he never knew… To put it simply, Naruto was shocked beyond belief. But that didn't mean that he had stopped paying attention. No. Nothing short of extreme trauma could shake his attention from the Sorcerer Supreme now._

_Noticing that he had the young man's complete attention, Strange continued._

"_Your family was responsible for the safeguarding of nine mythical beasts. Everything about them has been lost to time, except for their power. These beasts were capable of great destruction, if they fell into the wrong hands. For millennia, your family protected these beasts from the world, and the world from their power. But as time passed, the threat of capture decreased, and members of your clan grew complacent. They wondered why they had viewed such a task as a duty, rather than a privilege. Hadn't they protected the world for long enough? Did they not deserve more? They began to wonder. And idle daydreams turned into ambition."_

Naruto had always dreamed of one day meeting his parents, or at least finding out about them. To learn that he had been forced to grow up alone for a reason. But the doctor had turned his dream into a nightmare.

"_They betrayed the creatures that they had befriended and protected for so long, and, through blood magic, forced the beasts' monstrous powers into their own bodies… They were fools. Blood magic… is power achieved through both sacrifice and… consorting with demons. The creatures' rage, combined with the vile nature of demonic magic, perverted the beasts' minds. They were reduced to swirling, mindless, black masses of hate, and this hate drove your clan mad. The man who had claimed the strongest of the beasts quickly overwhelmed the others in his lust for power, and took their might to increase his own."_

He told Naruto that the sorcerer supreme of that time finally decided that he could wait no longer, and took action. That action meant slaying the most powerful of the betrayers in his family and leaving the rest to waste away, due to the destructive nature of their newfound paper.

Brushing those thoughts from his mind, Naruto tried to remember what it had felt like when his flames first appeared. The anger, and the hate…

Nothing yet. Still nothing. And… right there!

With a yell, Naruto saw the purple flames burst to life around his hands. But, as was the case at the hospital, they weren't hurting him. No… he felt great! Like he could take on the whole world, and win easily! This rush!

That rush… is what destroyed his family, if what the sorcerer had told him was accurate. Willing the flames to vanish, Naruto was upset to see that they remained. And really, why should he put his fire away? It wasn't hurting anybody. All it did was make Naruto feel alive. It was like nothing he had experienced before.

"_What I have been able to uncover is that the dark nature of this power eventually drives its users mad – the taint is what makes your flames violet in color. As a result of this madness, much of what remained of your family was destroyed in the ensuing battle for dominance. The survivors dispersed, slowly falling victim to madness, or death. I would not be surprised if you were the last of this cursed line."_

Suddenly disgusted by how good the power felt in his hands, Naruto grit his teeth, and tried to force the fire away with all of his willpower. Sighing when they finally disappeared, Naruto raised his hand, and wiped the sweat from his brow.

It terrified him how much physical and emotional exertion he had needed in order to make those hellish flames disappear.

And the bad news only continued. The last of his line… he had no parents to find.

_For all of the stones that had fallen into Naruto's stomach, none of them felt heavier than the one letting him know that his parents probably weren't out there somewhere._

_Still, he had to be certain._

"_And… my parents? Do you know if they're… dead?"_

_Letting out a sympathetic sigh, Stephen Strange continued in his role as the bearer of bad news._

"_Naruto… if your family ties are with your mother, then you must know… the darkness buried in your family's blood makes it virtually impossible for the mother of such a child to survive childbirth. And if your ties are through your father, then, given your age and his absence from your life so far, I must assume that he has long since either been driven to insanity, or that he has died… I'm sorry, Naruto."_

When he had asked the sorcerer what all of that meant for his life and for his future, the answer he received was far from comforting.

_Clenching his fist, Naruto could only ask what all of that meant for his future, for his life._

"_I cannot guarantee anything, Naruto. All I can tell you is that, I have no desire to imprison you, or stifle you. My role as Sorcerer Supreme does not call for such preemptive action. And I believe that you can use this power for good, no matter its origin. But… if you exhibit any signs of succumbing to the darkness inside… I will be forced to stop you. Do you understand?"_

_Naruto's face was grim._

"_Doctor… if I ever get close to becoming a monster like that, I'll just save you the trouble and off myself. Now…how do I control it? How do I use it? Can you help me, like you promised?"_

The doctor's "help," had just been telling him that he could probably handle it. The only advice he had been given was that he should meditate, to find his "inner peace." Tsch. Like that was going to help.

"_The power is already inside of you, Naruto. You have already accessed it. You simply have to remember that feeling, and the power will come to you. I have nothing to suggest that using the power will hurt you immediately; the burn scars on your arms are the result of your power being released uncontrollably. The only advice I have to offer is to make peace with yourself. Do not allow your mind and emotions to be thrown into turmoil. Otherwise, I'm afraid that, at this time, I cannot help you… I dare not delve into your mind – the risk of being corrupted through such an intimate connection is too great."_

_Taking a breath, he continued. _

"_Naruto, you must be careful… this power can and will destroy you, and everyone that you love. You must never falter, lest you suffer the same fate that your family did. I will always be available, should you need assistance."_

"Sorcerer Supreme my ass… he didn't do shit except tell me that I was doomed from the start… And so much for bein a fuckin hero… Fuck. I need a drink."

Throwing on a bomber jacket over his orange dress shirt and jeans, Naruto decided that he would clean his up apartment later, and went out to get shitfaced.

Hopefully he would wake up and this would all turn out to be another bad dream.

XXXXX

No such luck. Even worse, he woke up and had a raging hangover. As if learning that he couldn't have anything close to a normal fucking life wasn't bad enough, now his head felt like it would explode.

The other night, he drank _a lot_. Probably more than any other night in his life. And even though Naruto wasn't anything close to an alcoholic… well, it's enough to say that he drank enough to black out.

Being memory-free, Naruto's only question was: how the hell did he even get back to his apartment?

Actually, how did he walk to his bed without slicing his feet open on all of the broken glass on his floor? Looking down at his feet, Naruto was surprised to see that they were cut free. Strangely enough, there were still glass shards next to his unblemished appendages. What, did he just decide to go to sleep with broken glass when he was drunk?

Picking up a piece of glass, Naruto decided to try something out. Placing the shard over the palm of his free left hand, Naruto took a deep breath.

And then he sliced his hand open.

Dropping the glass in pain, Naruto immediately looked for gauze to wrap around his hand, all the while wondering why he had decided to such a stupid thing, when he felt the funniest sensation.

Looking back at his left hand, the blond was amazed to see the gash healing, closing itself shut. Now, instead of a profusely bleeding hand, Naruto only had to deal with the stinging pain caused by the glass. But even that pain was duller than it should have been.

He'd always been an unusually healthy person, but his unnaturally quick healing had always been limited to smaller injuries, and hadn't really applied to more serious wounds.

Regardless of the change, he decided that cutting his palm open once was enough, and moved to start cleaning up his still wrecked apartment, in a somewhat vain attempt to force his mind onto other things.

"…Shit. Where's my phone?"

Carefully maneuvering around the swathes of shattered glass on his floor, Naruto found his phone hidden inside of his discarded and rumpled jacket. More important than where he found his phone was what was waiting for him when took a look at the screen.

"Five missed calls, and three unanswered texts." He let out a sigh.

XXXXX

Seeing as every missed call and text was from Jennifer, Naruto decided to stop by her apartment immediately after sweeping the majority of the glass off of his floor. A more thorough clean could wait until later.

After reaching the front of the apartment building, Naruto chose to just call Jennifer, instead of buzzing in first.

"Naruto?" Jennifer answered after two rings.

"Yeah, hey Jen. Sorry I missed all of your calls yesterday… and never responded to your texts. I was kinda busy for most of the evening. Mind if I come over?"

His friend answered with another question.

"It's fine Naruto. I'm pretty free… when were you planning on visiting?"

"…I'm outside of your building."

There was a surprised pause on the other end of the call, followed by a prompt "okay," and then the sound of Jennifer hanging up soon after.

XXXXX

Taking a seat inside on a rather plush chair inside of her much nicer living space, Naruto decided to get right into the heart of the matter.

"So… sorry if I worried you last night. I… wasn't in any state to get back to you."

In retrospect, if he wasn't trying to worry her, then that probably was not the best way to phrase that. Especially considering that Jennifer had been leaning closer to a curious concern than a pronounced worry.

"What? Why? Did something happen?"

…Because the truth was a little less dramatic.

Coughing once to try and relieve some of his embarrassment, Naruto decided to answer honestly.

"I, uh… After I had my talk with some SHIELD guys I… went out and got really, really drunk."

"…"

"…"

Trying to end the awkward silence, Naruto just asked if she was alright. Her deadpan response was answer enough.

"Naruto… when I first texted you it was only two in the afternoon."

Well, Naruto was certainly embarrassed now.

"…Right. Well, I was getting blasted for a good reason."

Hearing his tone quickly change from embarrassed to bitter, Jennifer softened her voice and decided to gently push the issue.

"What's the matter? You know you can tell me anything…"

Naruto simply shook his head, and closed the topic.

"Jen, it's not that I don't want to tell you… It's just that, it's my problem. You don't have to worry about it. I'll be fine. Really."

Feeling a little hurt that he didn't choose to tell her, but at the same time understanding that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, Jennifer settled for just lightening the mood.

"Ahem… so. Getting drunk at two in the afternoon? Really?"

Appreciating the abrupt change in topic, Naruto just played along.

"Well, ya know… It's five o'clock somewhere, right? Hahahaha…. Hahaha… haha… ha….?"

Jennifer's facial expression could be described as 'less than amused.'

"Naruto… what am I going to do with you?"

Shooting him a grin that he immediately returned, Jennifer Walters couldn't help but feel that she had achieved her goal of cheering her friend up.

Naruto would agree with her.

XXXXX

As he walked beside the director of SHIELD, Naruto paid close attention to what the man was saying.

That didn't mean that he necessarily liked everything that he was hearing, however.

"What d'ya mean I have to go through SHIELD training? I _was_ in the military, ya know."

The director, without even sparing him a glance, quickly and effectively shut down that line of protest.

"So you've been trained to deal with super powered criminals, gods, and all kinds of other people that can't be matched conventionally?"

"Ah… right." Naruto deflated a little bit after that retort.

Well, that was that. Training it was.

"So… am I gonna be do this with Jen, or…?"

Without showing any of the very slight enjoyment he derived from it, Nick Fury delivered his next line without even the hint of satisfaction.

"Actually, we've assigned you to a handler, while Ms. Walters will be working with people more suited to her particular situation."

Feeling annoyed again, Naruto delivered his complaints subtly and cleverly.

"And…. Are you gonna tell me who those people are? You know if you don't, I'll just ask Jen and I'm sure she'll tell me right away."

He was answered somewhat sarcastically.

"Well then I'm sure you'll be willing to wait until you see her."

Ignoring the blonde's grumbling and the annoyed twitch in his brow, the director simply pointed him in the direction his handler, and turned away.

After he had walked several paces away, Director Fury simply offered his new walking companion a curt greeting.

"Hill."

Maria Hill returned the greeting in kind, and then moved directly on to the heart of the matter.

"Director, are you considering him for-" She didn't get the chance to finish.

"Yes, I am."

XXXXX

Naruto, on the other hand, was momentarily stunned into silence.

"Um… are you supposed to be my… handler, I guess?"

The beautiful blonde woman in front of him gave a short chuckle, her somewhat pale blue eyes meeting his own darker irises. She put out her right hand.

"Got it in one. Carol Danvers. Nice to meet you, Mr. Uzumaki."

A second passed, and Naruto still hadn't reacted to her outstretched hand.

"Do they not shake hands in Los Angeles?"

Shaken out of his stupor, Naruto, seeing the teasing grin on the woman's face, simply offered an embarrassed laugh, and finally shook her hand.

"Ha… sorry about that. I'd heard about people doing this hand shaking thing, but I figured that was just a myth."

He also offered her a pretty stupid joke. He actually felt kind of bad about how dumb his opening line was. But she didn't react poorly. In fact, she actually gave him what he assumed was a pity laugh.

Yeah. Maybe this whole handler thing wouldn't be such a drag after all.

XXXXX

Another chapter down. Some stuff's not exactly as it is in Marvel, but where'd the fun be if I just kept everything the same? Hopefully the pace picks up in the next chapter, but the story kind of writes itself, and I'm just along for the ride. Some parts of this chapter felt kind of rushed, but maybe that's just me. Let me know if any of you felt the same.


	3. Build-up

Read and Review

XXXXX

After living through the experience of Jennifer Walters sending him into a wall with one punch, Naruto had no doubts about the fact that there were women out there who could kick his ass.

And even if he did have any remaining doubts, they would have been snuffed out the first time Carol Danvers had flipped him, tailbone first, onto the dark blue training mat where they had been sparring.

Sparring was a term used loosely.

"Come on Uzumaki! You done already?!"

Naruto took one last second to stare up into the plain white ceiling before responding.

"Ah damn… that last one hurt like a bitch. How many times are you gonna kick my ass, again?"

Letting out a short laugh, Carol gave him an honest, albeit unwanted answer.

"As many times as it takes for me to feel satisfied with your progress. Now on your feet!"

Acquiescing to her request, Naruto stood up and prepared himself to go another round. Unfortunately for him, it wouldn't go much better.

As he put a foot forward and opened with a quick jab, Naruto felt like he could maybe force his blond handler onto the defensive, and get out of this training session without another loss to his name.

Sadly for him, Carol countered with a jab of her own to his body, which also had the added effect of forcing him back on the defensive for just a second. And that was just the opening that she needed.

Stepping forward and hooking her foot around the back of his ankle, while simultaneously giving a hard push to his chest, the blonde woman swept Naruto's feet out from under him, causing him to unceremoniously fall flat on his back.

"Fuckin A!"

Naruto's groan of complaint was met by Carol's peal of genuine laughter.

XXXXX

The next five months passed relatively quickly for Naruto. To his surprise, since he had (somewhat unofficially) been pulled into SHIELD, his life had more or less settled into a routine.

On most days he would wake up, train in stealth and espionage, get his ass kicked by Carol a few times, and try and catch Jennifer to talk (who was usually busy doing something with her new friends, the Avengers, he noted with the slightest hint of envy), after which, he would usually be totally exhausted, and simply collapse. Then it would start all over again the next day.

Not that he begrudged Jennifer her time with America's premier superhero team… He was just a little disgruntled that she was off doing that while he was stuck in preparation, just so that he could, in his mind, be promoted into doing grunt work.

It was safe to say that he had been somewhat disappointed that nothing crazy, interesting, or even slightly out of the norm had popped up. He figured that being in SHIELD meant that he would basically become some sort of super James Bond.

Looking back, Naruto would have mixed feelings on his desire for a more exciting life. He would remember his first five months in SHIELD with both disdain and nostalgia, at various times.

At the moment, however, Naruto could only say that he was shocked, and expressed his feelings both calmly and politely.

"You want us to spy on Latveria? Are you fuckin insane?"

Gritting his teeth as discretely as he could, Nick Fury didn't lose his composure, and simply corrected the blonde man.

"No. I want Ms. Danvers to go into Hungary to attempt to learn as much as she can about Latveria's recent movements, seeing as any attempts at outside observation are strongly rebuffed. She's the best we have that isn't currently tied up, and while I'm hesitant to send someone so inexperienced on such an important assignment… we need to get you up to snuff as fast as possible."

Taking all of this in, Naruto asked the obvious question.

"And… why do you need that? If you're not sold on me yet, why risk it?"

The director answered without showing any surprise at the blonde's apparent increase in both intelligence and seriousness.

"As a potential superhuman asset," the director started, while simultaneously taking note of the younger man's slightly tensed expression.

"It is clear that the sooner you can be put to work, the better. Ms. Danvers will explain the rest to you. You are dismissed."

Naruto normally didn't like being brushed aside like that, but realizing that now was not exactly the best time to show his dislike of dismissive authority figures, he just gave a tiny nod, and walked off to find his blonde handler.

XXXXX

"Carol, please tell me that Fury just decided to show that he has a sense of humor, and made all of this shit up as a joke."

Normally, Naruto could at least get a small sign of Carol's amusement whenever he tried to be funny, or at the very least tried to make things less serious. The fact that she showed no such indicator did nothing to ease the nerves in his stomach.

"Huh… okay. So what exactly am I going to be doing?"

At this, Carol looked up.

"_You're_ just going to be my support, and my last resort back-up if things go wrong. Otherwise… You're going to have to stick back. You're not experienced enough with this kind of thing to really help right now."

Naruto just continued his short run of intelligent questions.

"…Since you and Fury obviously both agree on that, why am I bein' shipped off with you? Why not just leave me with someone else?"

Carol didn't have an easy answer for that question.

"I… Look, I'm sure Fury has his reasons. Asking me questions that I don't know the answer to won't help you understand Fury's reasons. Now start preparing. We're heading out tomorrow morning."

Seeing that he wasn't going to get any more information out of Carol, Naruto couldn't help but get in one last line of questioning.

"Come on Carol… All this really makes sense to you? I'll do my best to help you, but… this whole thing rubs me the wrong way."

With that, Naruto left to prepare himself for what might prove to be a very harrowing time indeed. If Carol had been at all affected by his words, he didn't notice.

XXXXX

Hungary wasn't such a bad place, Naruto decided. Granted, it would probably be a lot better if Naruto didn't feel such a ridiculously high amount of paranoia every time someone even looked at him funny.

At least the hotel was nice.

He did his best not to show his nervousness, an effort that had been immensely difficult, even knowing that his role in the assignment wasn't a vital one. Honestly, the only thing that really happened with him was that he realized that Carol would probably never run out of ways to impress him. Watching her snoop around about the isolated dictatorship that was Latveria without ever looking like more than an oddly curious tourist, Naruto was amazed at how composed she was.

Unfortunately, his relatively quiet stay in Hungary was about to end.

When he heard the door click open, Naruto discretely put a hand on the pistol holstered on his side, nearer to his back pocket than his front. He calmed down considerably when he noticed that it was just his blonde handler.

"This is a dead end Naruto. I'm not going to get anything else out of staying here. The problem is… I haven't been able to get any worthwhile intel here."

Naruto really didn't know where she was going.

"So we're goin back home?"

He did, however, get a bad feeling in his gut when the woman in front of him just shook her head.

"Fury picked up on something serious happening in Latveria… We can't take the risk of leaving without any good information and being caught off guard if they do something big."

Even though Naruto had figured out what she was saying, he still had to be completely sure.

"Are you saying that we're goin to Latveria?"

The answer he got was the just one that he didn't want.

"I am."

"God dammit."

XXXXX

Getting into the castle of Latveria's ruler, alleged to be a man named Victor Von Doom, had been shockingly easy. Even if Doctor Doom hadn't been real, it shouldn't have been so simple to get inside the capitol building of any country, much less that of an isolated dictatorship.

Of course, fate would have it that Naruto learned _exactly_ why it was so easy for them to make their way into Doomstadt.

"Fools! I was aware of your presence the instant you crossed my borders!"

Easily knocking aside Naruto's hastily drawn sidearm, Doctor Doom made his presence known.

"To seek me out in my own home? Even the worst of men know better! GODS know better! Who is behind such folly?"

Naruto's mouth opened before he could get it under control.

"Would you believe me if I said that we work for MTV Cribs?"

Without bothering to dignify that with a response, Doom let loose a powerful punch which sent Naruto flying several feet backwards.

After seeing the young man's back hit the floor, the Latverian dictator, assuming that his armor-augmented strength had been enough to either kill or at least incapacitate the blonde, turned his attention to the other intruder.

"Insects! You are NOTHING before the might of DOOM!"

Crying out Naruto's name in worry, Carol opened fire during Doom's angry proclamation. Unfortunately, bullets could do little harm to the force-field generated by the villain's armor. When the agent of SHIELD had ceased firing, Victor von Doom dropped his force field in order to let loose a concussive bolt from his right hand.

As she felt the bolt hit the dead center of her torso, Carol simultaneously felt a cracking sensation in her ribs, which was accompanied by a strong bout of dizziness and nausea.

"None may touch Doom but that he wishes it!"

The armored man would have continued to speak, but he was interrupted by what Naruto would later call one of his "best lines ever."

"So call me a genie!" He called out, fueled by his anger at seeing his female friend blasted in such a manner.

Doom turned his head in surprise, at both the blonde's conscious state, and his idiocy. However, that was the only way in which he was able to react, before what was essentially a flamethrower of purple hellfire erupted out of Naruto's outstretched fists, which were, rather inconveniently, only about two feet away from him.

"Rah!" Doom cried out, more in anger than in pain. Still, the couple minutes that Naruto bought himself were invaluable. Very quickly assessing the situation (while cursing the throbbing pain in his jaw), Naruto reached several conclusions.

One, Carol was definitely out of the fight, considering that she looked like she was only half conscious, and had a thin rivulet of blood dribbling out of her slightly parted lips.

Two, it really didn't seem like the guy who he'd absolutely _covered_ in fire was all that bothered. In fact, he seemed like he was going to be totally fine in just a minute, only this time, more pissed off.

And three, which was really just an extension of point number two, Naruto didn't know if he had a good enough grasp on his power to survive against what was clearly a superhuman enemy, much less win.

Naruto hated running away, but he knew that he would have hated it more if fighting got both him, and, more importantly, Carol, killed.

"Agh! Fuck!"

With those eloquent words, Naruto sprinted over to his downed partner, picked her up as carefully as he could while maintaining speed, and immediately continued running as fast he could.

He did his best to ignore the sharp, stabbing pain in his hands.

XXXXX

As Doom took care of the flames, which were definitely at least somewhat magical in nature, he noted with a passing interest, he saw the two intruders moving to escape his country.

Given how small Latveria was, it wouldn't take them too long to cross over the border, and thus make it highly inconvenient for Doom to continue pursuing them.

It may have been more trouble than it was worth now… but Doom never forgets. And their accents had been distinct, unmistakable. They would pay for angering him.

"American fools…"

Naruto Uzumaki earned his place on Doom's list of people to crush.

XXXXX

After administering some pain killers, Naruto saw to it that Carol received medical treatment immediately upon their return to the United States, despite the fact that she seemed to be relatively okay, all things considered.

Not many people, superhuman or otherwise, can say that they've survived a violent encounter with Doctor Doom.

All of that aside, Naruto was still worried for her well-being, seeing that she was one of his few friends. Not that he could wait around her bedside, as the stern director of SHIELD wanted to debrief him.

"What exactly happened, Uzumaki?"

Choosing not to beat around the bush, Naruto gave the somewhat abridged version of the story to the man sitting across from him.

"Well. We weren't really gettin anythin out of Hungary, so, it seemed like tryin our hand in Latveria was a good idea, which, in retrospect, it definitely wasn't. We got into Doomstadt pretty easily, since it turned out to be a damn trap. A guy in a metal suit of armor came out, and was kickin our asses for a little bit, until I lit him on fire… He blasted Carol with some crazy thing he shot outta his hand, and he hit me with a damn hard right cross. That was before I turned on the stove top, by the way. And then we got the hell out of there, seein as Carol was out of it, and I figured that the metal dude was gonna be _really_ upset with me."

After that, Naruto took a deep breath, while also watching Fury for any reaction, aside from the slow blinking that he was doing. After about a minute or two, Naruto was starting to feel a little flustered.

"W-what? Something wrong?"

Fury didn't respond, externally, at least. Internally, however, he was wondering if the blonde's potential usefulness was worth how much of an idiot he was. He finally chose to let out a sigh.

"That was an… unconventional way of keeping me informed, but… I suppose it did the job. And what of Ms. Danvers? Was she of any help during your confrontation with Doom?"

Caught off guard, Naruto just asked all of his questions up front.

"Doom? Is that actually what that guy's name was? What? And I really don't know what ya mean by that question about Carol."

Director Fury decided to ignore the first three questions, instead choosing to respond to Naruto's declaration of confusion.

"Given what we know regarding Doctor Doom's capabilities, I'm forced to assume that, had you not had your powers, you both would have been killed. Ms. Danvers is good… but I need to know if she'll be up to working with you, considering that you will undoubtedly be asked to deal with problems of a superhuman nature."

Naruto took offense, and let the director know, consequences be damned.

"Hey, wait a goddamn minute! First of all, he ambushed us, and second, I was only able to hit him because he musta thought that I was down for the count after he decked me. And besides, she's more than good enough! She kicks my ass in basically everything right now, and she's one of the most qualified women – no, people - that I know! So I don't know where you-"

His rant was cut off by director Fury calmly raising one hand, requesting that he stop. Surprisingly, Naruto took this into consideration, and let the one-eyed man get a word in.

"That's enough. I think you've made your point. Ms. Danvers, I'll be debriefing you next. Step inside."

Naruto, who had gotten onto his feet mid-rant, turned sharply and gave a wide grin.

"Hey Carol, you're up! Alright! How do ya feel?"

He didn't give her the chance to answer before putting his arms around her in a friendly hug, lifting her slightly off the ground as he did so.

Surprised, Carol hesitantly pat her fellow blonde on the back, and hoped that nobody could figure out how warm her face felt. Thankfully, she was spared any more awkwardness by Fury letting out a strong "ahem," to capture their attention.

"Uzumaki, you'll be contacted if we need you. You are dismissed. Danvers, take a seat."

"Y-yes sir, of course."

As she took a seat, she felt Naruto pat her once more on the shoulder, before he left the room.

XXXXX

All in all, things hadn't turned out too horribly, Naruto decided. Now to top the day off by catching up with his best friend. Choosing to surprise her, Naruto simply strolled up into her apartment complex, seeing as they had exchanged keys some time ago, after it had become evident that the best way to see each other would just be to visit the other at their home.

Knocking three times on her door, Naruto waited. And waited. Funny. He had a strange feeling that she was inside, even though she wasn't coming to the door. Trusting his intuition, Naruto gave his friend notice before simply unlocking and opening the door.

"Okay Jen. One two three I'm coming inside!"

That got a response.

"What? N-no!"

Unfortunately, by the time she had said that, the door was already wide open.

Still, her outcry confused Naruto. It's not like she was naked or anything. As far as he could tell, she was just sitting by herself on her sofa. He took a quick glance around.

Nope, there wasn't anyone else around, either. Huh.

"Uh… hey? Any reason you didn't want me to open the door?"

He supposed that Jennifer's skin being green was a little different. And the whole seven feet tall thing. Plus there was the part where was she was jacked as shit. Or was ripped a better word?

Sadly, Jennifer mistook his confused staring as something else, and promptly put her face in her hands.

"Not you too…"

Being shaken out of his staring, Naruto, displayed his talent for understanding what other people were attempting to convey.

"What? What's up Jen?"

She shook her head miserably, before starting to speak.

"Look at me. I'm j-just a freak! I-"

Naruto interrupted her before she could say anything else.

"Woah! Where is all this coming from?

"Are you blind _and_ an idiot?! Do I look normal to you! I'm some kind of m-monster!" She snapped out, before trailing into a choked sob at the end.

It seemed like this was more serious than Naruto had originally thought. Ignoring any hurt or anger at her outburst, Naruto did his best to soothe her.

"Jen, I don't know _who the fuck_ gave you that idea, but let me tell you right now, that everything you just said is a loada _horseshit_! Honestly, you still look beautiful Jen. Plus, I think that this whole she-hulk thing you've got goin on is awesome! Who gives a flying fuck if you're green, or taller than me… or stronger than me… Okay, fuck, the point is…"

He was spared the pain of having to try and salvage what remained of a promising speech on friendship, and the importance of the content of one's character, by the green woman's teary giggle.

"You're such an idiot, Naruto," she said again, this time with much more fondness in her voice.

"Gee, thanks," he deadpanned in response, though inwardly very pleased with himself.

He continued.

"So what was that all about, anyways?"

She sighed. Knowing that it would sound silly when she said it, she told him anyways.

"It was something some Hydra thug said… that's all."

Ignoring his great desire to ask whether or not Hydra was another cool acronym or just a name, Naruto decided to keep his good friend combo going.

"Oh, come on Jen. You got all down on yourself because some salty piece of shit tried insulting you? You know you're better than that. I'd say that I'll get him for saying somethin like that to you but… to be honest, you can probably lay down a much better ass-whuppin than I can…" He said, transitioning into a disgruntled grumble when he again reminded himself of how ridiculous Jennifer's green physique was.

Giggling again, Jennifer wiped the last few remaining tears from the edge of her eyes. She stood up, feeling oddly bold, relative to her normally very shy nature.

Jennifer walked in his direction, only stopping when she was directly in front of the blonde, forcing him to look up at her. Slowly, she reached her right hand up to his face, and tenderly cupped his cheek.

At the same time, Naruto's face was growing warmer than he thought possible, and he felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his head. Truthfully, it was a miracle that he wasn't sweating buckets, especially considering what she said next.

"You really think I'm beautiful?"

Naruto's normally-present bravado had vanished.

"Ah… of course. Doesn't matter if you're green or not… I've always thought you were really p-pretty, Jen."

When he saw the way she smiled at him, his brain went into overdrive, and his nervousness took over.

"Ahahaha… Well, ya know, haha, I should really get going… Busy day tomorrow what with meetin Carol and all… bye!"

With that, Naruto turned and briskly walked out of the building, trying to calm himself down.

Meanwhile, Jennifer just giggled again, one hand resting on the doorframe as she leaned against it. But then she remembered something that the blonde had just said.

"…Carol?"

The frame cracked.

XXXXX

"Such insolence will not go unpunished."

Victor von Doom had no doubt that the two intruders had been under order to seek him out, and perhaps, even attempt to kill him. And such actions could not be without consequence.

He would bide his time, and then use his full genius and might to crush them and their foolish masters.

XXXXX

Setback after setback. Loss after loss. Hydra, and, more importantly, Johann Schmidt would not stand for such humiliation. Too many times had he been foiled by that flag wearing buffoon. It was time, once and for all, to finally put an end to the nuisance that was Captain America.

Of course, the Red Skull's previous attempts to kill the man had all failed; that was something that he was reminded of all too often.

Recently, he had been much easier to anger, his failures enraging him to points that even he had very rarely known. If he wasn't so fixated on destroying the all-American hero, he might have been more curious about his recently uncontrollable temper.

As it were…

"I _will_ kill you Captain… I swear it. You will die by my hand, and mine alone!"

Johann Schmidt lost what was left of his sanity.

XXXXX

Unaware of the machinations of several major players in the never ending battle between good and evil, Naruto stood alone in a dim room, surrounded by unlit candles. Seeing as his control over his power was spotty at best, combined with the fact that it felt like luck played a major part in his escape from Doom, and Naruto decided that he had to attain a stronger mastery of his ability.

And what better way to do that than by lighting candles? It was safe and low-stress. Plus, it would look really cool once he had it completely down.

Exhaling slowly and extending his opened right hand, Naruto focused on the feeling that his fire gave him, while trying to separate it from the anger that usually came before. Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't for the fire to simply come to life in his palm, without any resistance whatsoever.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Naruto simply moved onto trying to light the candles around him.

_Approx. one hour later_

Bending over and resting his hands on his thighs, Naruto let loose a loud sigh. He had gone through a lot of ruined candles before managing to get to a point where he could justify stopping.

That didn't mean that he had gotten as good as he wanted to.

In fact, under normal circumstances he definitely would have continued to practice, but, as it were, the pain in his hands was too great to continue, especially since he wasn't in any kind of serious situation.

Grimacing at the pain in his hands, Naruto figured that his rate of improvement wasn't that bad. Granted, he had no reference point, but considering that before today he couldn't even create fire without working himself up…

And another thing; before, when he had attacked Doom, that fireball was about all he could do, in the sense that he really had no control other than making fire come out of his hand.

Now, though, he could at least kind of manage the output, to the point where he usually didn't totally melt whatever candle he was trying to light. He even managed to light a couple of wicks completely correctly.

"Whoo! Yeah!"

Naruto was suddenly struck by a sudden excitement, which was one hundred percent an overreaction to a fairly minor accomplishment. Coming down from his unexpected emotional high, Naruto took a second to think about where exactly that came from. Sure, he was an emotional guy, but that…

Whatever, he could worry about that later. His hands still hurt like a bitch.

XXXXX

"Sup Carol. How ya feelin?"

Waving at the male in greeting, Carol responded out of courtesy.

"Feeling better. Still a little tender right over where he hit me. I was lucky that none of my ribs were actually broken."

After their encounter with Doom, Naruto's one on one work with Carol had been put on hold, due to doctor's orders. Of course, given that he handled himself fairly well upon being surprised by the Latverian dictator, it was only a matter of time until Naruto was done with formal training for SHIELD anyways.

At any rate, regardless of the reasoning, Naruto didn't have to get wailed on by Carol today, so instead, he asked to meet her for coffee. He had more free time than he was used to, since the training he did on his own was considerably shorter, and also left him much less exhausted.

Throw in the fact that he was interested in the well-being of a friend, and this was just the most sensible thing to do.

So here they were, in a New York Starbucks, making small talk.

_**hatehatehatehatehate**_

Naruto turned his head sharply.

"Did you hear that?"

Carol's quizzical look was answer enough.

"What?"

Shaking his head, Naruto figured that it must have been his mind playing tricks on him, and went back to chatting.

"Ya know, Carol, we should do this more often."

She just smiled at him.

"Sure. By the way, thanks for admitting that I 'kick your ass at just about everything."

"…You were listening?"

XXXXX

The next month passed by quickly, mainly due to the fact that not a whole lot had actually changed. Naruto had started to meet Carol outside of SHIELD on a semi-regular basis, and Jennifer had almost always been in a good mood whenever he saw her, but other than that…

Nothing too crazy. Although, Naruto had gotten much better at bringing out his fire (he was actually surprised by how quickly he was improving). Now he would almost never melt the wax at all when lighting a candle. It sounded mundane, but throwing a bolt of fire precise enough to put a purple flame on a candle wick without doing anything else was hard. On the side, it also looked slick, so that was nice.

The only problem was that he hadn't figured out how to stop his hands from hurting if he used his flame too much. Or why it even happened. Maybe he should try meditating, like Strange had said?

Nah. Not enough time in the day. He assumed that if he got more used to it, then the pain would lessen. Plus, he really didn't think that he would be able to meditate on his powers, if at all. Every time he used them, he would get more excitable than usual for about an hour afterwards, probably due to the rush that just using the fire gave him.

Still, it had been a slow month. And Naruto knew that the last time he had wished for some excitement, he had come face to face with what he later learned was one of the most dangerous individuals on the planet, but still.

He couldn't help it if he got bored.

Unfortunately, his wish for more excitement was going to be answered, again. And this time, the consequences would be far more immediate.

XXXXX

Johann Schmidt had bided his time long enough. It was time to crush Captain America and his allies, once and for all.

Today would be the day of the Red Skull.


	4. Wet Work

Read and Review

XXXXX

Times Square is a symbol, not only of New York City, but of the United States of America. Throw in the fact that it is perpetually crowded, and it is quite a sight to see.

It was therefore a fantastic location for the Red Skull to lure Captain America into his death, perhaps only falling short of the White House. Of course, the American capitol building was an inconvenient staging ground, due to the unnecessary hassle involved in setting the stage.

But that was irrelevant now. Here, Captain America would die with the whole world watching.

His soldiers were placed in key positions surrounding the square, ready to fight and die for their leader. His dust of death payload was at the ready, as the first stage of his plan.

One push of the button, and Times Square would descend into chaos, as the people in its space would fall victim to his poison, their faces degenerating into red skulls, just like his had all those years ago. Only they would not survive the process, because they were weak. Beneath him. Just like the Captain.

"If only they knew… of the key role that they would play in the ushering in of a new era. They would be grateful. Instead, they will die in ignorance. I suppose that is cruel of me, keeping their glorious purpose hidden from them. Haha… HAHAHAHA!"

The Red Skull's mad laughter broke free from his body uncontrollably, as he began what would be remembered as one of history's most infamous days.

Times Square fell into anarchy.

XXXXX

"Oh God!"

"Help me!"

"Please!"

The only sounds coming out of Times Square were those of chaos, as the victims of the Red Skull's gas attack quickly died in droves, their last thoughts full of terror.

It certainly didn't help that the Red Skull's soldiers had been instructed to fire on targets of opportunity once New York's many heroes and civilian rescue services had mobilized. Because of this, even New York's mightiest heroes, such as the Avengers or Spiderman, found themselves unable to focus on rescuing those who had somehow managed to avoid the first plume of poisonous gas.

The scene filled Naruto with anger.

_**killkillkillkillkill**_

He heard the almost static-like noise again, but was still unable to discern what it was, or where it came from, particularly over the din of gunfire.

Whatever it was, though, it was making him angrier. Making matters worse was the fact that, since he didn't have the means to either protect his skin or filter out the gaseous toxin, he wasn't able to be of much help. He wasn't even able to jump in and fight off the Skull's troops, since they too were in the gas-filled danger zone.

In essence, the situation forced him into being a bystander.

Rationally, he knew that it made the most sense for him to wait in the wings, just in case a situation should arise in which he could be of some use.

It didn't mean that it was easy for him to accept, however.

Still, the pain of uselessness had been at least bearable… until he saw the madman responsible for the attack.

The Red Skull and Captain America were locked in hand to hand combat, the red, white, and blue clad hero wearing a gas mask over his face to prevent an ignominious death.

The logical part of Naruto's brain saw that, while the Red Skull certainly looked like an impressive fighter, he wasn't on the same level as a soldier touted to have attained the absolute pinnacle of human physical capability. Therefore, given the Captain's insurmountable physical advantage, it was easy to see that the fight only had one realistic outcome.

However, Naruto wasn't looking to justify his actions. He didn't feel the need to come up with some reason for what he was about to do. And who would have believed him? The only thing he could possibly say was, "Captain America looked like he needed my help." And since that was a blatant lie...

Something inside of him took over.

He ran into the square, somehow shrugging off the pain of his body being destroyed by the poison that now surrounded him.

XXXXX

"Give up Skull! It's over!"

Hitting the villain's red face with a staggering right cross, forcing him to stumble backwards, Steve Rogers could only think about how difficult it would be to recover from this disaster.

Of course, that would come after seeing that Schmidt answered for his crimes.

"It is time for a new morning in America! For the whole world! This is my glory day!" The Skull screamed. Captain America, seeing the insane sneer on his old enemy's face, realized that Johann Schmidt had finally and completely lost his mind.

Before he could stun the villain enough to finish him off, however, he took in the sight of a blonde man, sprinting towards them, whose skin seemed to be constantly fluctuating between its normal state, and the crimson, shriveled up skin seen on the victims of the Red Skull's toxin.

He was unsure about whether or not this newcomer was friend or foe. As he was about to question the unidentified man, the spiky-haired blonde charged at the similarly confused Red Skull.

That settled it, then. The blonde was not the immediate threat, at least.

XXXXX

Naruto didn't notice anything outside of his target. He ignored the now hellacious pain all over his body, and focused only on his bloodlust.

"You monster!" He screamed out, leading with his forearm as he drove the Red Skull back and then onto the ground, ignoring the elbow strikes that his German foe let loose on his back in an attempt to free himself.

As they both hit the ground, Schmidt snarled in anger and responded with several blows to the blonde's face, with the purpose of stunning him and shaking him off. Against any normal combatant, his strikes would have been more than effective at staggering his enemy. Even the American super soldier he so despised would have given some indication that they had hurt, or at least done some damage.

The blonde loon who was pinning him, however, didn't even seem fazed. The crimson-faced villain settled then for pushing against the blonde's face with both hands, using all of his strength to try and push him off.

On the other end of the fight, a small part of Naruto realized that, while momentum could explain how he had been able to upend another fully-grown and proficient fighter, he definitely should not have been able to shrug off those hits like he had.

Granted, he took a punch from Doctor Doom and came out more or less okay, after a few moments of being dazed, but that probably didn't mean that three punches to the temple and jaw from an athletic man should have felt like the equivalent of being hit by a crumpled up piece of paper.

In most circumstances, he would have been a little more interested in his durability and apparent physical resistance, both to force and the deadly gas all around and inside of him, due to his reckless charge into the fray, breathing in poison all the while.

Now, however… all he could think about was the heartless man whose throat he had pinned with his left forearm.

"Why did you do this! Why!?" He yelled, with the threat of brutality indicated clearly by both his voice and his fist, poised to strike.

Letting out a noise that was half snarl and half laugh, Johann Schmidt spoke his mind.

"I will destroy you, and then that fool captain! This world will be mine!"

Hearing that was enough to send Naruto out of control.

"All of those innocent people!" He brought his fist down onto the Skull's face with the force of a sledgehammer.

_**hatehatehatehatehate**_

"All of the men!" The Skull's resistance weakened as Naruto pounded his face once more.

_**burnburnburnburnburn**_

"All of the women!" The grip that Johann Schmidt had on Naruto's chin had slackened considerably, to the point where his hand looked more like it was caressing the blonde's face than pushing it back. Naruto willed the fire to spring to life on his knuckles, just enough so that his fist was coated in purple flame.

_**killkillkillkillkill**_

"And! All! Those! Children!" With each word, Naruto slammed his fist into the man's face. He felt his nose and cheekbones give way, undoubtedly shattered by the now slightly superhuman strength that the blonde was unknowingly using. The heat from the flames only served to make the man's already grotesque, skull-like face look even more disturbing, as deep burns accentuated the clearly broken bones.

By the time Naruto realized that the man he had been pummeling was dead, blood pouring profusely from his forehead, lips, and nose, he had already been pulled off by Captain America, who had been roused from his surprised inaction by the sight of the blonde brutalizing what was clearly a corpse.

When he finally understood that he had continued beating the man's body well after he had killed him, he felt violently ill. He was unable to focus at all, to the point where he couldn't make out or understand a single word that the star-spangled hero was saying to him.

He did the only things that he could do: vomit, and then fall unconscious.

XXXXX

When he came to over five hours later, he registered an ache that went all over his body. Within a few seconds, he also felt that he had apparently broken out into a cold sweat.

He blearily heard someone talking, and then opening a door.

"-e's awake, if you-…."

Blinking slowly, he took a look around. He was most definitely in some kind of hospital, judging from the sterile smell, and the fact that he was wearing nothing but a hospital gown. As he remembered the last thing that he did before passing out, Naruto felt nauseous once again.

His attention was diverted from his sudden feeling of sickness by the sensation of a hand cautiously taking his.

"Naruto? Are you okay?"

During the second it took for him to understand that he was being spoken to, Naruto looked over to his right and saw his closest friend.

"Jen? I… I've been better. But I don't feel too bad… You? Were you there?"

His green friend, who had been tentatively smiling at him as he spoke, took on a much more sober expression.

"Yeah, I was… I was in the middle of it all too. When I'm like this… I'm immune to poisons, due to my hyper-enhanced metabolism. The rest of the Avengers were there too, of course. That's actually how I knew that you were here, because… Steve – Captain America – told us the basics, and I recognized your description enough to check."

Naruto adopted a grim expression.

"Right… so he told you about what happened, then?"

"Yes, but I want to hear it from you too. Something must have come up, or… I don't know. Just… I know that I didn't get the full story. All he said was that you killed the Red Skull." Jennifer Walters responded with a frown.

"I-" He was interrupted by the door opening again.

"Ms. Walters, I've given him enough time to wake up and become functional again. I'm going to have to talk to him now."

"But Director Fury-"

"That wasn't a request." He silenced her protest.

Shooting her friend a backwards glance of worry, Jennifer Walters left his hospital room, and closed the door behind her.

Turning his attention to the one-eyed man, Naruto was surprised at what came out of the man's mouth.

"I'm not here to tell you anything, other than the fact that, while you may have been a little… excessive, overall, you did the right thing. The Red Skull had to be stopped, and with your actions… Well, I'd say he we can consider him stopped for good. Now, onto the more important thing – the real reason I came here to talk to you, after helping setup recovery and cleanup operations in the square, of course."

Fury looked at him in a sincere manner that made his next statement ring with more than just a hint of suspicion and accusation.

"I didn't know that you could survive that kind of exposure to poisonous gas, or that you could effortlessly crush a well trained and dangerous opponent like the Red Skull. I would like to know why I didn't know that."

Naruto didn't back down from the older man's intimidating stare, looking him straight on as he spoke the truth, in the most serious manner possible.

"I didn't know any of that either, sir. I was surprised that his punches didn't really seem to have an effect on me… as for the gas… I can't explain that either. I… I lost control, and just rushed in."

While everything he had just said was the complete truth, the director seemed less than convinced. He also seemed to realize that he most likely wouldn't be getting anything more out of this conversation by pushing the issue, so he let it go, for now.

"Well, according to the report that the Captain gave, it doesn't seem like you were immune to the poison. No. Instead, you seemed to be constantly suffering from its effects and then recovering from them, all within the span of a few moments. That might explain why you were unconscious for the past few hours, as well as the fact that you wouldn't stop screaming in pain until we sedated you. And from the autopsy performed on Johann Schmidt's body, I can safely say that you're probably stronger than the average man… No regular person's punches could have broken another human's bones like _that_."

Expression turning stern, Fury proceeded to make another ominous sounding statement.

"I hope that you're not hiding anything else from us, Mr. Uzumaki."

Without hesitation, the blonde told him that he wasn't.

This time, however, Naruto had decided against telling the truth.

XXXXX

Having gotten dressed and just checked out, Naruto, standing in the lobby of a SHIELD run hospital, couldn't help but remember just what it was that he had lied about.

He wasn't necessarily hiding anymore of his powers from the Director, per se, but…

Now he understood. Everything. He saw it all. Horrific, nightmarish glimpses into the origins of his power. He had experienced visions of a darker day; that must have been what had had him crying out in agony while he was unconscious, if Fury was to be believed.

His family members giving into temptation, their fall…

His eyes glazed over in thought.

Stephen Strange was right, but only about the most basic historical facts regarding his power.

Yes, his family had guarded nine beasts of power, and yes, greed had been what led to their downfall. But the doctor was so woefully wrong about some of the most important things.

He saw a select few in his family begin to have idle fantasies about the power they could obtain, should they take the beasts for themselves. He watched as these idle fantasies turned into mad ambitions; ambitions which pushed his clan towards civil war.

He experienced the failure of his more righteous clansmen, and their despair as the victors gleefully took the beasts of power into their own bodies. The horror, as they watched the strongest of the nine proceed to kill and steal strength from the other eight. Their agony, as they and their loved ones were destroyed for having dared to resist. A once righteous and noble clan was reduced to the single, victorious line.

Through it all, however, Naruto was able to understand what the power had done to his ancestor. It didn't drive him insane. Not directly. As a matter of fact, it could be said that he had been driven mad by his lust for power well before his eventual success.

What worried him was what he saw happen to others, later in the family. They used the power freely. And as they used their power more and more, it grew stronger and stronger, and their flames burned more brightly and became more evil in nature. That explained how quickly he improved, and how much easier it became to bring out his fire as he continued to practice. But this benefit came at great cost to both body and mind.

Their power didn't make them insane. It just destroyed their mental stability, and made them unstable to the point where the slightest push would force them past the point of no return. And as for their bodies…

While it granted them, and him, by extension, ever increasing durability and physical strength the more they utilized it, it also destroyed their physical health.

The human body was not made to handle such power. He hadn't felt sick because of what he had done to the Red Skull. No, that monster deserved it! He should have kept him alive, if only to make him suffer! He should have –

Cutting off his thoughts and taking a deep breath, Naruto tried to finish piecing together what he had been seen.

He had felt sick because sprinting into lethal gasses forced his body to use much more power than it ever had before, and he, quite simply, couldn't handle it. The stronger he became, the closer he got to dying. It was that straightforward.

And, perhaps even more sadly…Doctor Strange was right about one more thing.

No matter their lineage, the mother of such a child always died in childbirth. No exceptions.

At the end of all his nightmares, Naruto saw **it**. The seething mass that he had previously only seen in his nightmares. Perhaps it had had a name once, long ago. But not anymore. It didn't even take any of the forms that he had seen in his visions. Now, all it did was spit out the incoherent chattering of a beast long consumed by hatred.

With all of that in mind, Naruto didn't know what was more selfish: trying to remain useful on the side of good, despite the inordinately high risk factor, or simply keeping himself on the side, in an effort to not tap into his curse.

"-uto? Naruto? Hello?" His internal agonizing was disrupted by the friendly voice of his now not-so-green friend.

"Haha… sorry Jen. Still a little out of it, that's all. So, uh, you can turn off the green?"

Raising an eyebrow at his abrupt conversation change, she responded none the less.

"That's one way of putting it. Yeah, I can go into She-Hulk mode more or less whenever I want to. To be honest, I feel kind of bad, since, well… Bruce and all, you know?"

Naruto responded as he felt he should have, but he really only focused on one part of her statement.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. So you can just turn it off whenever you want? Well, shit, that's nice…Good luck, I guess, heh." Realizing that what he had just said might have hinted at some things that he really wasn't ready to talk about, not even with his closest friend, Naruto did an about face and proceeded to do change the subject, again, before Jennifer could even hope to interrupt.

"The Avengers, huh? Look at you, doin it big! Hotshot lawyer, superhero… How's that all workin out for ya?" He began walking forward, gesturing for her to follow.

Increasingly curious about her friend's behavior, such as his abrupt change in manner of speech, Jennifer followed him towards the exit nonetheless.

"Hm… Stark is as much a womanizer as all of the media make him out to be – don't worry, he hasn't made a move on me, I made it clear to him that that wasn't going to work, so you don't have to get all macho on me now – and of course, you've met Bruce –" She was interrupted by the sound of the door opening just as they were going to leave, followed by her friend saying,

"Carol? What're you doin here?"

Ah, so that's what had gotten her hackles up. This was Carol. It didn't help that she was a) absolutely gorgeous, and b) had just hugged the blonde male next to her as if they were friends.

"There's nothing wrong with seeing a friend at the hospital right? Although it doesn't look like you're hurt. You want to do coffee? I feel like it's been forever since –"

Seeing that the blonde woman had yet to remove her hands from her friend's arms, Jennifer, surprising herself, since as she was usually only so bold when she became She-Hulk, decided to return the favor and interrupt.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I don't think we've met. I'm Jennifer Walters. How do you two know each other?"

It was all said in a friendly tone, but Carol knew otherwise, especially considering the fact that the other, darker-haired woman hadn't even extended her hand in greeting.

Turning to face the woman known as She-Hulk, Carol regarded her coolly.

"Yes, I know who you are. My name is Carol Danvers… As for how I know him, well, I'm his handler."

Seeing that this awkward conversation trap was going nowhere, Naruto chose to end it quickly.

"Okay, well it was great seeing ya Carol! Shoot me a text, we'll figure it out. And Jen, I'll keep you updated too! We should definitely catch up! Okay, bye!" And he speed-walked out of the door, looking back only to make sure that both women had also gone their separate ways.

XXXXX

"I hope you know, Mr. Uzumaki, that you've just put yourself on the map. Killing the Red Skull is a big deal… Luckily, you're still unaffiliated with any known organizations. Given what we've learned about your capabilities… it's time for you to become more active."

Naruto just gave him a firm nod.

"I understand, sir."

Nick Fury was intending to make the most of this asset while he was still a relative unknown. Perhaps his identity could be kept hidden from the public eye, and he could therefore become even more useful to SHIELD that way. The only thing that the public knew about the Red Skull's killer was that he was blonde.

That meant that Naruto could work as SHIELD's hidden blade. A secret, superhuman weapon. The Avengers were for the public eye. But Naruto… he could do what was necessary.

If only Nicholas Fury knew that taking this course of action with the blonde was doomed to end in failure.

XXXXX

"Brock Rumlow. Goes by the alias 'Crossbones.' His affiliation with the Red Skull is well known. Somehow this thug got away in New York - must have slipped out in the chaos. He's a world-class marksman and martial artist. Be careful, Naruto."

"Don't worry about it, Carol. Going silent." Naruto grunted out in response, letting Carol know that he was closing in.

Truth be told, he was nervous as all hell. This hadn't been exactly what he had expected when Fury had told him that he was going to be more active. But the director knew just which buttons to push.

"_You just want me to be a glorified hit man!"_

_Nicholas Fury's iron composure cracked a little, and he let some of his displeasure show._

"_Call it what you want, but you'll only be doing what's necessary."_

"_And why can't the Avengers do 'what's necessary?'" Naruto fired back._

_Director Fury raised his voice a little._

"_You know damn well why. You think the public would trust the Avengers if they went around killing people outside of the law?"_

_Naruto didn't back down one bit._

"_And you're asking me to do the exact same! I don't kill people in cold blood. That's not how I'm gonna do things."_

_Fury gave him a fierce look, his one eye shining in anger. It was time for him to push in the dagger._

"_Naruto… I'm not saying this is the perfect world. I'm asking you to help improve the world as it is. What you do behind the scenes can help prevent anything like the disaster in Times Square from ever happening again."_

Naruto couldn't refuse after that. Not after seeing the bodies of the innocent littering the streets. If dirtying his hands a little meant that no one would ever have to suffer through anything like that ever again… he would do it in a heartbeat.

He couldn't just shoot Rumlow, seeing as the man was usually in very public places. He probably figured that he wouldn't be able to escape all forms of surveillance, for the time being at least, and therefore chose places where he knew there would be problems killing him.

This led to Naruto lurking around where he had been most frequently sighted, and once he had finally managed to not lose sight of him, following him to whatever hole he had been hiding in.

Keeping his distance so as not to arouse suspicion, Naruto followed Crossbones into a rather nice apartment complex, waiting until he almost was fully inside before slinking inside himself. Judging from the lobby, Crossbones' apartment was probably nicer than his.

Naruto would have grumbled, but, seeing as doing so might somehow fuck up all of his hard work, he decided against it.

Unfortunately, he was in for a surprise, regardless of whether or not he grumbled.

Seeing Rumlow neglect closing the door behind him, Naruto immediately felt uneasy. This time, he did complain.

"No way this is a trap…" he groused sarcastically.

Still, he had a job to do, and he wouldn't fail.

As soon as he set foot in the doorway, he had to react immediately as he heard the tell-tale signs of a gun being drawn.

Slapping the arm away, Naruto followed up with a right hook that was blocked by a muscular forearm. Without hesitating in the slightest, both men engaged in what had the appearance of an extremely high stakes boxing exchange. It was far from a drawn out affair, however. Staggering the blonde with a boot to the chest, Rumlow stepped forward with the intent of finishing him off, drawing his combat knife.

"You're out of your league kid!"

He didn't expect his younger opponent to step forward himself. Naruto took the blade into his ribs with a slight cry of pain, while simultaneously slamming his head into Crossbones' nose.

_**murdermurdermurdermurdermurder**_

Not giving the man time to recover from his now probably broken nose, Naruto stepped forward again, and used all of his strength to punch the man in his now exposed throat.

Although it had taken several blows, his strength had still been great enough to more or less ruin a healthy human being's skull.

Brock Rumlow's throat caved in like a box made of tissue paper. Naruto stumbled back a step, exhaled, and pulled the man's knife out of his side with a grunt of exertion, resigning himself to the stinging pain as his body healed the wound. He then focused on the downed Rumlow, who was now choking due to a collapsed airway. Naruto noted with a grimace that he also seemed to be drowning in his own blood.

Making his decision, Naruto took a step towards the downed man.

"From what I've been told… you're scum. But this is an ugly way to go. And as much as I may think you deserve it, for what you guys did in New York…" Naruto trailed off, and picked up the knife that he had haphazardly tossed to the floor.

Acting quickly so as not to unnecessarily prolong the man's suffering, Naruto drove the knife into Crossbones' heart.

He had to take a deep breath before letting Carol know that it was done.

_**hatehatehatehatehate**_

"I'm back Carol. He's dead." Without waiting for a response, Naruto called in a clean-up crew, and slowly walked out of apartment with the now blood-stained floor. Hopefully his blonde friend wouldn't make any fuss about the bloody stain on his shirt.

XXXXX

"Abdul al-Rahman. Connections to Iran-backed terror groups. Has already made inquiries with the end goal of committing acts of terror on American soil. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Target might be armed, but nothing superhuman."

An ambush in the man's home, which ended with a noose. Passed off as suicide. Reasons unknown.

"Jonathan Banks. Right-wing extremist. History of drug abuse. Profiles match those of known school shooters. Social media and manifesto published online all suggest the same. Incident highly likely in the immediate future."

He died of a cocaine induced heart attack.

"Michael Wells. Lone-wolf. Has expressed admiration for attempts to smuggle bombs and firearms onto passenger flights. Appears to have begun home manufacture of explosives. Mid-level gang affiliation."

Multiple stab wounds. Circumstantial evidence points to gang violence.

XXXXX

Their names and faces had started to blur together at this point. Naruto only killed for the professed end of guaranteed security, and, since there hadn't been any incidents like the Times Square Disaster, he had endured.

It didn't mean that it didn't take its toll. While he was rarely forced to use any of his powers, aside from healing the deeper-than-it-appeared stab wound sustained against Rumlow, the constant cold blooded killing still left him drained. Of course, Fury didn't assign him any of the big names because their deaths would undoubtedly cause a stir, which would throw unwanted attention his way.

In addition, none of his targets, aside from Crossbones, had actually committed a crime yet. His victims were just civilians who were too risky for SHIELD to leave alive – everything he was doing was preemptive. The punishment came before the crime, and the punishment was death.

He tried not to think about their families.

"Carol, I need a break, or something… if I keep doing wet work like this, I just know I'm gonna snap."

Biting her lip in worry, Carol agreed, both internally and verbally.

Despite his almost flawless physical health, Naruto still looked extremely exhausted. He bantered much less than usual, and every conversation he had pointed to an extreme weariness. She had no doubt that he was completely emotionally exhausted.

"Okay… Talk to Fury. If you're feeling too burned out… The mental health of people working for SHIELD is something that he takes seriously."

Trying to lighten the mood, she half-heartedly smirked.

"And besides, maybe now I'll be able to get out some more."

Being in one of his now more common emotional moods, Naruto failed to see the joke.

"Yeah, you're always looking out for me."

Carol was surprised by the wistful way he had made his statement.

"You know, we're friends, Carol, but I don't really think we know anything about each other, beyond shallow things… maybe we should fix that sometime?"

Her face grew a little warm, due to the absolute sincerity in his voice.

"I…okay."

XXXXX

Letting out a sigh, Naruto decided that telling Fury that he was just about at his breaking point was definitely the correct thing to do. He hadn't felt so relaxed in what felt like forever.

It sucked that he hadn't really been able to spend too much time with Carol or Jennifer in the past week or so. What with Carol being asked to monitor some alien or something, and Jennifer being busy with her two basically full-time jobs as a lawyer and superhero all in one.

He had some other capes though, so that was cool. He already knew Bruce Banner, of course. Nice guy.

Although, he hadn't really met Captain America, per se. Really, they had just seen each other in passing, and exchanged what Naruto thought was a look of recognition. As in, literally recognizing that they had maybe kind of interacted before. It was sort of awkward.

He had actually run into Spider-man too. He seemed like a good kid, if a little socially inept.

Of course, on the other end, Peter Parker was only on edge because the blonde man was making his spider-senses go off like there was no tomorrow. Since he couldn't just defend himself from a man who hadn't done anything to harm him, Parker found himself trapped in a brief conversation with a guy who, to him, more than screamed danger.

Naruto just assumed the kid was lacking in people skills, so he shrugged it off. He was hoping to meet some more Avengers, but whatever. He just assumed that it would come in time, because he was part of the community now.

His hopes of meeting the rest of America's premier superhero team would have to be put on hold, however, because they, along with his two closest friends, would soon face trials and tribulations of their own.


	5. Catalyst

A notice to hopefully resolve any confusion: this chapter concerns the events of Avengers Disassembled in this alternate universe.

Read and Review

XXXXX

Naruto's life had been quite hectic, recently, what with the abduction of his good friend, Carol Danvers by aliens, which resulted in her also becoming a superhuman, which, of course, was followed by her becoming a member of the Avengers going by the name Ms. Marvel.

When it was just Jennifer – she was his closest friend, so it was wrong to feel anything but pride for her.

But now that Carol had also become a superhero, and could also _control_ her power … He couldn't help but feel a little resentment towards the two of them for having it so… so…

_Easy_.

They didn't have to suffer the consequences of power. They just got all of the perks: the endurance, the power, the fame.

_**They didn't constantly feel the battle inside. The insanity. They weren't racing towards their own deaths every time they tried to use their power for good.**_

_**hatehatehatehatehate**_

He ignored the insidious whispers in the back of his mind.

That's just how it was. They saved the day, signed the autographs. They were the darlings of America and the world. Meanwhile, he broke into people's homes and murdered them before they even had the _chance_ to commit crimes.

Naturally, his mental health break was bound to end sometime, and he was forced to go back to doing SHIELD's dirtiest work. That meant going back to the sleepless nights, the vomiting, and the horrific nightmares of the faces of dead men whenever he did manage to fall asleep.

It didn't help that his days were filled with the voices in his head, slowly building up pressure inside of his skull until he felt like he wanted to tear his own ears off, just so that he could go a day without hearing them.

He would have tried, but his ears would just grow right back anyways. And that would only make the voices louder. Even worse, they would pop up at any time of the day now, whereas before they were mostly confined to his time in combat or otherwise dangerous situations.

_**partofyoupartofyoupartofyoupartofyou**_

And no matter how hard he tried to avoid using his power, it never really worked out. Not perfectly, at least. A grazing bullet here. A broken bone there. They all healed in mere moments, but Naruto didn't think that even such a small use was worth it. He had no way of knowing how much anything damaged his body… All he knew was that a broken bone recovering in less than half a minute hurt at least ten times more than just having a damn broken bone.

He didn't even have Carol to talk to anymore. Not frequently, at least. Since she was busy with other things, Naruto was now working with some nameless suit. They weren't friends, and, frankly, Naruto didn't really think he was up to making a new friend, given that they had only met over the bodies of civilians.

So the blonde killed, went back to his rather spartan apartment – nice furniture and physical possessions offered him little joy now – ate, and slept. Very infrequently, he might even see one of his friends, of which there were few. Actually, now that he thought about it, he only had two people he would _really_ consider his friends, and, to him, they had left him behind for greener pastures.

As he sat on his sofa, he lamented the fact that he couldn't get drunk anymore. He could have looked into the specific reasons, but really, all he needed to know was that his ancestors were to blame.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto clenched his fingers tighter around the handle of whiskey, and he tried again.

XXXXX

"Carol… have you seen Naruto recently?"

Carol Danvers turned her head to look in the direction that the voice had come from.

"Naruto? No, not really. Why? Something happen?" If there was one other person who Carol knew would know what was happening with the blonde man's life, it was the green woman standing before her.

Jennifer bit her lip nervously, before deciding to confide in the blonde woman with whom, admittedly, she had become good friends with. Fighting together tends to do that for people.

"No… I'm just worried. It's been at least couple weeks since I last saw him, and when we were talking… he seemed – I don't know. Moody? Angrier? Something was off. And when I tried to reach out to him, he just kept shrugging it off or changing the conversation…" She-hulk's voice trailed off with a trace of hurt.

Carol knew that everything that she was saying was true, from firsthand experience. Their coffee… meetings had gone from being frequent and regular to now being few and far-between.

And even though she had learned a lot about him, and in turn told him some secrets herself – such as her issues with her father, her brother's death – she definitely felt like, as time went on, he was shutting himself off. At the time, she had felt hurt that he suddenly acting so distant, but… if he was closing out Jennifer too, then who knew what was going on.

Actually, she probably knew what was going on. After-all, it was hard to forget the tiredness in the man's face, or that he had admitted to her that he had routinely had rough nights. Damn, she should have pressed him more when he tried telling her that he was getting better.

Jennifer, seeing the blonde woman zoning out, prodded her verbally.

"Carol?"

Carol was going through an internal debate. Naruto had asked her not to tell Jennifer about what he was doing, and she cared about him enough to agree to it rather easily, but now, since he clearly wasn't improving…

She let out a sigh. This was for his own good.

"Jennifer, there's something that you should know about Naruto… and what exactly his job was when we worked together."

XXXXX

Wanda Maximoff couldn't believe it. When she had asked why people thought she once had two children, she braced herself for the worst, but…

To actually hear it hurt more than she could have imagined.

XXXXX

When Naruto was told by Nick Fury that there was an explosion at Avengers' Mansion, he tossed aside all of his negative emotions and the two rushed to the superheroes' home, along with a number of SHIELD personnel. When they arrived, there wasn't much left of the mansion, and apparently, one of the Avengers was dead.

However, they didn't have time to grieve, nor did Naruto have time to talk to Jennifer, because of the plane that crashed right into what remained of the already levelled building.

"What the fuck?!"

Naruto got his answer soon enough, when the red-faced android Vision stepped out of the wreckage.

As Naruto remained, transfixed by what was happening, he missed the majority of what the robot had said.

"…Do know that, though this will seem a betrayal from me… It is not I who brings this *hurk* this plague upon you. Do know that I feel an overwhelming shame for… What now must *hurk*"

With that, Vision, his face rapidly deteriorating via what looked like melting skin, opened his mouth and spat out what appeared to be chrome marbles.

Naruto heard Captain America shout out a warning.

"Avengers… fall back!"

Then the marbles… grew, for lack of a better word. Right before Naruto's eyes, they transformed into one of the Avengers' most famed enemies: Ultron. Or, more precisely, five Ultrons.

When he was dealing with regular civilians, even if they were armed, he basically never had to really tap into his power. But for this, it seemed like it was absolutely necessary. Naruto could already feel the bile in his throat.

As the Ultron robots began their attack, Naruto saw the Captain deflect a beam that surely would have killed Hawkeye, before he began his own attack in earnest, letting just a slimmer of his anger out.

Unfazed by the fact that Hawkeye shooting explosive arrows into the robots' faces seemed to have no effect, Naruto rushed ahead, a step ahead of the team surrounding him.

"Naruto!"

Jennifer called out as she angrily rushed forward on her own, while Steve Roger's eyes fractionally widened in recognition, as he recalled the blonde man in front beating the Red Skull to death.

_**burnburnburnburnburn**_

"Argh! Fuck it!" He yelled out, as flames burst to life around his hands. Running through a beam to the chest, Naruto lashed out against the first robot he saw, ignoring the burn in his torso as his body repaired itself.

The Avengers, however, didn't miss the blood that gushed out of the blonde's chest, even as he seemingly disregarded the grievous wound that he had suffered. There was time to wonder about that (or in Jennifer's case, be worried) later. Now, there was only the fight.

Snapping the robot's head back with his fist, Naruto continued his assault, and rained punches down on his enemy's body, thinking that if he inflicted enough damage, it would simply die or shut off. The Ultron copy was far from helpless, however. As he continued striking it, it returned the favor by repeatedly blasting his body with energy beams.

In the background, he heard Captain America advise: "No head, no Ultron!"

_**Killkillkillkillkill**_

_**Hatehatehatehatehate**_

_**Burnburnburnburnburn**_

_**Burnburnburnburnburn**_

_**Ragerageragerageragerageragerageragerageragerage**_

Yelling out, both in pain and in anger, Naruto pulled his fast back and punched straight through the robot's neck, separating its head from its body.

"SHUT _**UP!**_ _**SHUT UP!**_"

Naruto stood up from the decapitated robot, and turned his head to the motionless Vision after acknowledging that the Avengers looked to be handling the other Ultrons.

The android's mouth started moving, but a different voice came out this time.

"_**hahaha… I am the reason that you use this power… you will die, mad and alone… hahahaha…**_"

He rushed over to the still prone body, and willed as much fire as he could to life, intending to incinerate the one who was taunting him. Captain America, seeing that the blonde was intending to _at least_ kill Vision, rushed into action. He couldn't just let an Avenger die like that, not without trying figure out what was going on. He also made a mental note of the fact that the blonde was screaming at Vision to shut up, even though it was clear that Vision was incapable of saying anything.

Hitting the younger blonde with a shoulder charge that sent them both tumbling across the ground, Captain America then got on to his feet and looked across at the other man.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Naruto responded with a fierce glare, with the threat of violence coloring his tone.

"Don't put your fuckin mitts on me again, _Captain_." He said, before spitting up a wad of blood and wiping his mouth as he tried to calm himself down.

"Uh… Cap…"

They both turned their heads to see She-Hulk holding Vision up menacingly, yelling at him for all she was worth.

"I'm so sick of this! WHY?! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?! WHY IS SCOTT LANG DEAD?! WAKE UP AND TELL US WHAT THIS IS!"

Naruto knew what was happening, but before he could do anything, the Captain beat him to it.

"Put him down and calm yourself, Jennifer, I mean it."

She turned to face him with tears in her eyes, and a decidedly green and wild looking iris.

"I JUST WATCHED AN AVENGER DIE! WHY!? WHYAARGH!?"

"Put him down!" Steve Rogers commanded, this time with more steel in his voice.

And then, Jennifer ripped Vision in half.

All hell broke loose, particularly when Jennifer swatted the Wasp as if she were a common pest.

The star-spangled man was outright yelling at this point.

"Calm down lady! Or Avenger or not, I will put you down!"

She-Hulk responded by throwing a punch that the captain was forced to block with his shield, which unfortunately did not protect him from the force of the blow. He was blasted backwards onto his back and momentarily stunned, as he tried to regain his bearings.

As the assorted SHIELD forces called in a "hulkbuster" crew and the other Avengers, namely Captain Britain, rushed forward to help their downed comrade, Naruto too moved to get involved.

"Goddammit… Fuck it!" With that battle cry, Naruto yelled loudly in exertion and rushed to where Kelsey Leigh, otherwise known as Captain Britain, had struck Jennifer with her sword, to no effect. Having experienced a much more minor version of this himself, Naruto knew what was coming next.

"Move!"

In a full sprint, he shoved the blonde woman to the side, sending her tumbling to the ground. Still, that was preferable to the powerful backhand that She-Hulk had sent out in reaction to the sword blow.

The first time Jennifer had punched Naruto while in She-Hulk form, he had been sent flying into a wall and knocked unconscious. This time, however, things were different. This time, he took the blow to his side, his only reaction being a loud grunt. The attack pushed him to the side a bit, but otherwise didn't cause serious injury.

It still hurt like a bitch.

_**revengerevengerevenge**_

"Jen, calm down!"

"AARGH!" She yelled in response.

Naruto took that as a sign that she hadn't calmed down. Refraining from using his fire since she was his best friend, Naruto rushed in again, regardless of the fact that it would be impossible for him to subdue her with only his fists. Hell, he didn't know if he could do it even with his fire, without just trying to kill her outright.

"I warned you Jen! You don't want this! NOT WITH ME! RAAGH!"

She might have been ridiculously stronger than him, but he was still a rational fighter, with countless hours of combat training. He dodged her blows nimbly, retaliating with the occasional body blow but knowing that his best bet was to knock her out with one hit.

Ducking under a wild swing, Naruto saw his opening and lashed out with his right fist, hitting her dead in the temple. Unfortunately, despite the fact that his strength was now at the peak of natural human potential, it still wasn't enough to knock out or even stagger a physical monster like She-Hulk. He realized this right as she moved through his punch like it was nothing, and grabbed his shirt and legs, moving him to a position over her head.

Realizing what was happening, Naruto tried to pull out his fire as fast as he could. He wasn't fast enough.

"No! Nonono! Oh no! No! No! NoAAAGH!"

She brought him down over his knee in a back breaker, and then tossed him aside like a used rag.

Kelsey Leigh could only gasp in horror, seeing the blonde man who had saved her undoubtedly being killed or at least paralyzed for life.

"Oh my god…"

Tony Stark, who was flying in just in time to see She-Hulk brutalize some blonde guy, reacted the only way he could, as he prepared to knock her out.

"Oh no…"

Swooping in like a fighter jet, Iron Man landed a mighty punch to She-Hulk's temple, sending her crashing into a nearby car and knocking her unconscious.

"Well I took no pride in that…"

As Hawkeye directed his attention to Captain America struggling to stand, Captain Britain was walking over to the dead man who had saved her life.

"You poor man…"

She was definitely not expecting him to respond.

"Yep, don't help me up! I'm just fine… nagh!" He cried out in pain as he got up on one knee, spitting out blood all the while.

Kelsey Leigh could only continue to stare in shock as he let everyone around know exactly what he was thinking.

"Fuck! Shit! Fuckin Fuck! Fuck that hurt! Ah…" Letting out a deep breath at the end of his small tirade, Naruto wiped the sweat from his brow and raised his head to take a look at the situation, which looked a lot better than it did a couple of seconds ago.

He saw the Wasp being carried away, probably to some hospital, and Iron Man helping a limping Captain America. Hawkeye and the Falcon were standing off to the side, surveying the situation themselves.

Turning his head to the blonde masked woman next to him, Naruto put a hand out.

"You mind givin me a hand? It ain't gonna end well if I try and stand on my own."

By now, she had shaken off her awe at his miraculous health, and readily put her own hand out, helping him onto his feet. He cried out again as he stood on his feet, his back still tender from its forced recovery. Putting a hand up to his face he realized that his nose was bleeding quite profusely.

A British-accented voice spoke.

"Thank you, for saving me back there. I'm glad that you walked away from all of… _that_ with only a nose bleed."

Naruto just offered her a grin in response, gesturing for them to introduce themselves. He didn't have it in him to put his heart into the grin, however. He knew, if the burning in his chest was any indication, that he was left with much more than a mere nose bleed.

XXXXX

"Naruto, she's in SHIELD custody until we know exactly what happened. We won't hurt her. But we _will_ detain her for the time being. And no, you can't stay."

"If I can't stay, then I'm comin with you!" Naruto shot back.

Nick Fury's lone visible eye took on a colder look.

"No, you're _not_. That's that."

Naruto just glared in response.

"Whether you like it or not, I'm a part of this now! I was there! And since it directly concerns my friend, I need to know what's happening!"

The director of SHIELD grit his teeth and turned around.

"We can't afford to waste time with this!"

From Nick Fury, that was the most approval he was going to get.

XXXXX

When they arrived at the ruined estate, they were greeted by the sight of many, many heroes waiting outside of the gates.

As he listened to their explanation, namely that they had all been Avengers at one point, and were just answering the Avengers' call for help, Naruto couldn't stop himself from wondering how much stronger he would be, after Jennifer had essentially tried to kill him.

His attention was redirected when Fury sternly told the assembled, non-active Avengers that:

"This is a live crime scene. You are _tainting_ it by being here. I need you to leave. _Immediately_. We have no idea what happened here today, and until SHIELD gets the proper field readings… Disperse!"

Before any of the heroes could respond, a young woman asked:

"Cap, is it true? Is Scott Lang dead?"

He gave her a grim look.

"Yes."

She visibly steeled herself before asking another question.

"And… I heard that… that… there was a blonde man at the scene too. That Jennifer b-broke his back… is that true too?" She asked, her lips quivering slightly near the end.

Before Captain America could respond again, Naruto spoke up.

"Kind of… It's only kind of true, Caro – oomph!"

He was unable to finish his sentence due to the strong hug that Ms. Marvel gave him. As he wrapped an arm around her lower back, in response to the strong arms around his neck, he smiled.

"Good to see you too, Ms. Marvel."

Carol pulled back and looked up at him, relief shining clearly in her eyes.

"Oh thank god you're alright! I was so worried… You idiot! What were you thinking!? You know that She-Hulk is too strong –"

They were interrupted by Hawkeye.

"If you two are done with your lovers' spat, we've got some more bad news headed our way."

Carol flushed when she realized that she had started yelling at him in front of all of the assembled heroes, and Naruto, for his part, grew a little red and scratched the back of his head embarrassedly.

Shaking themselves out of it quickly, they focused on what Nick Fury was saying.

"Ignorant piece of shit! The UN just disavowed its relationship with the Avengers… and Tony Stark was forced to resign as secretary of defense. And not in the nice way. By the way, what part of leave do you… not…"

As he trailed off, everyone assembled turned their eyes to what appeared to an alien craft flying by, a green beam shooting forth from its center.

"Helicarrier, this is Fury. What are you reading?"

"I'm sorry, colonel."

"I said, what are you reading, soldier? I need intel. ASAP."

"On what, exactly? Um… I'm not picking anything up."

As Nick Fury grew more frustrated with his subordinates, Captain America took charge.

"Ms. Marvel, take the lead! Any Avenger who can fly, assemble! Find out what this is. Nick, you can't stop them, so don't try."

Before he could retort, the SHIELD agent on the other end of his radio asked again: "What are we looking for?"

Nick Fury was incredulous.

"You don't see this?!"

"I, uh, I need to get some more arrows," Hawkeye stammered out.

An alien armada was right overhead, poised to attack. There was a large flagship, surrounded by many, many fighter craft.

Now Nick Fury was yelling.

"Helicarrier!"

"Still nothing. What exactly are we looking for?!"

Letting loose a growl, Fury said the most obvious thing that came to mind.

"Look out your fucking window!"

"Oh! Oh my—"

"Yeah."

As the alien ships descended on the assembled heroes, Nick Fury's cool voice broke through the chaos.

"Any of you jokers speak Kree? Maybe I'm just punchy from, but I don't think they're here for a picnic!"

As the Avengers did battle against the flying ships, so too did the Kree beam down their own ground forces. Naruto could only curse his terrible luck at being in these situations.

Naruto roared and leapt into the fray, sending wide swathes of fire at the alien invaders, incinerating those who that he hit, hoping that they would be turned back quickly. He didn't want to have to deal with the consequences of using so much power in such a short period of time.

The director's voice rang out again.

"This isn't right! These Kree – they have us at a total disadvantage! They have the tech and machinery to level New York without breaking a sweat. There's no reason for a ground assault!"

Using his fist to let out another jet of purple flame, Naruto yelled in response.

"Yeah, well a ground assault is what's happenin!"

Just as he finished yelling, Hawkeye showed up with, if Naruto estimated accurately, over a million arrows strapped to his back and in his quiver. As Hawkeye joined the fight, cursing the aliens all the while, he failed to notice the green laser strike his back, lighting his arrows on fire.

"Not like this! Not like this!"

With that, Hawkeye grabbed a Kree soldier with what looked like some kind of jet pack, and pulling it into a one-armed hug, activated the pack.

"Like this!"

Hawkeye's final battle cry echoed as he flew them both into what had to be some sort of reactor or power source for the largest alien ship… because when he flew in, the ship was rocked by an internal explosion.

Naruto tried to focus on the fact that an Avenger had just sacrificed his life for them, and not on the fact that he had literally no idea how that just happened.

Captain America was stunned, but only for a moment. Then, he sounded the charge.

"Avengers! ASSEMBLE!"

As the angry heroes surged forward, the Kree troops were beamed away, back into their ships… and then the ships sped away themselves, denying the heroes their retribution.

"What happened Carol?"

"They're gone!" She growled out in anger.

As the Avengers were left to grieve without a chance to vent their anger, a blue light materialized from the downed Kree warship. The light quickly took the form of somebody that Naruto recognized immediately.

"Doctor Strange?..."

"I apologize for arriving so late… but I thought by now you would have realized the nature of these attacks. The magics are being abused."

Captain America's face fell.

"Oh no…"

XXXXX

After hearing what Doctor Strange had to say concerning the Scarlet Witch… Naruto couldn't help but sympathize.

A powerful individual who went insane? Someone whose powers now threatened everyone, and had already claimed Tony Stark's public image, the Avengers' their backing and home, and the lives of two Avengers themselves?

Even though he was here with the rest of them, ready to fight this insane mutant if need be, Naruto naturally had his misgivings. And while Carol along with several other heroes had voiced their objections to Strange's statements, on the grounds that Wanda was a good person and their friend… they now looked all too ready to change their tune if it turned out that the Doctor was correct.

Would that happen to him, if he started to become dangerous? Would the same thing that he had done to so many then happen to him? He knew that it was nothing short of what he deserved, but… it was still unsettling.

As Captain America was sent flying out of the window, he knew what was going to happen.

The Scarlet Witch's own comrades were going to put her down. As the Scarlet Witch hovered over them, Carol angrily screaming at her the whole time, accusing her of murdering their teammates, Naruto decided that he never wanted this to happen to him. He never wanted to have to fight his friends because they decided that _he_ was the next threat.

When Carol rushed Wanda, the Scarlet Witch's eyes glowed, and she made a statement.

"You can't have them."

The them in this case being Wanda's two children, who she apparently _created_ – not birthed – _created_ using her magic. And, according to Doctor Strange, the two children weren't even real…

Terrifying, what insanity could do to a person. Even more so, what it could do to a powerful person.

With her utterance, the Avengers were immediately attacked by enemies that she conjured, both dead and alive. Ultron, the Red Skull, copies of Spiderman…

But the battle was short lived, as Stephen Strange confronted the mad witch herself.

"Wanda Maximoff! This stops now!"

"No! You can't take my children away from me again!" She screamed, tears dripping from her eyes.

Naruto found his gaze transfixed on the magical duel happening above him, completely losing interest in everything else around him. His eyes widened when Stephen Strange completely and decisively defeated her, who supposedly had the power to warp reality itself. He incapacitated her with ease, despite the fact that she had summoned some sort of demon to aid her…

Was this the power of the Sorcerer Supreme?

_**dangerdangerdangerdangerdanger**_

_**killkillkillkillkill**_

While Stephen Strange explained to Captain America, who was holding Wanda's motionless body, that he had more or less put her into a coma, Naruto could not stop seeing the power that the Doctor had drawn out.

Even when Magneto arrived to take his daughter away and the Avengers began leaving, himself in tow… his mind was still placing Stephen Strange into a category deep within his subconscious.

Deep down in his mind, Naruto viewed the Sorcerer Supreme as a threat.

XXXXX

It had been a difficult three months for Jennifer Walters, and it all culminated with this. Here they all were, in Avengers' Mansion, waiting on Janet van Dyne – the Wasp – and Henry Pym – Ant-man, under the false pretense that they were just having a reunion. But she knew that the real reason everyone was together was to try and figure out what was going to happen to the Avengers. Regardless of what the team decided, however, she had already made her choice.

She was done being an Avenger; she needed to take time off from being She-Hulk. The way she lost control would have been enough to solidify her decision, but remembering what she had done to her closest friend – again – was enough to push it beyond doubt.

Indeed, she had burst into angry tears when she first recalled what she had done, only made worse by the secondary memory of tearing Vision in half.

She tried to shake those thoughts off though, since all they did was cause pangs of guilt in her heart.

"Jen? Why aren't you hulked up for the big reunion? Why are you here as Jennifer Walters and not She-Hulk?"

Jennifer looked up to see Janet looking at her inquisitively, and then quickly put her head back down, closing her eyes so that nobody would see the moisture building up in them.

"I thought it would be in bad taste, considering…"

She was cut off by Janet and Steve Rogers both telling her that nobody was angry with her, and that all was forgiven. The problem was that she hadn't forgiven herself. And from the occasional sharp looks that Carol was sending her way, she hadn't forgiven her either.

Then Tony came in and informed the team that he no longer had the financial means to support the Avengers, due to damages suffered during the events caused by the Scarlet Witch's warping of reality.

As she told the team that she was done with being an Avenger, and as everyone was saying their farewells and remembering their favorite moments of the team, all she could do was look out onto the ruined estate grounds and wonder what the future held for her.

And she wondered if she would ever not feel terrified of losing control and killing the person most important to her.

XXXXX

Naruto stood alone in Central Park, waiting for his good friend Carol, which was odd considering that they almost always met at some kind of coffee shop or café. Still, a little change of pace wouldn't hurt, especially with all of the things that had happened recently, such as the disbanding of the Avengers.

It would be good to unwind and catch up a little.

He would have liked to do the same with Jennifer, but unfortunately, he hadn't really been able to get through to her – in fact, if he had to give his best guess, he would say that it looked like she was avoiding him.

Ah, damn, he really had to get in contact in her, since, knowing her, he figured that she would be depressed or stuck in self-loathing right about now.

"Naruto! Hey!"

Smiling and waving his hand, Naruto responded in kind, expecting maybe an intimate hug or a kiss on the cheek at most.

So he was caught completely off guard when she grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulled him forward, and kissed him. He had just enough sense to close his eyes and enjoy the feeling of her lips, before he felt her pull away.

"Wow…" he said dazedly.

Opening his eyes, he saw that Carol had a pretty blush on her face, but was still looking at him straight on.

"Naruto… I've fought terrorists, monsters, robots, and aliens… but I don't… I'm not… this is one of the hardest things I've ever done."

Seeing that she had his full attention, she continued.

"But hearing that you might have been killed… I thought about some things, and I… I…"

When Naruto saw his usually extremely strong and confident friend falter, he stepped in, as friends do. Placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, he told her:

"Carol… I understand. And when you're ready to tell me, I'll be waiting."

She bit her lip and looked up nervously, something else which he was unused to seeing.

"And now?"

He responded by kissing her this time.

"Now? We'll figure out as we go along."

She gave him a brilliant smile and hugged him around the neck, resting her head on his chest.

Yeah… Naruto was feeling pretty good right now.

_**norest**_

_**nonenonenonenonenone**_

_**mineminemineminemine**_

XXXXX


	6. This House is rated M

Read and Review

Hm… I've noticed that there's a sub-ideal amount of reader retention following the first chapter. I'm assuming that if you're here, you've read everything up this point… or that you've at least read the first chapter. Basically, I'm asking you to tell me what made you decide to read up to this point, and, more importantly, what things you might have found problematic in the beginning of the story.

Now, one point that's already been made is that the connection to the Naruto universe itself is less than clear in the first chapter – and that's a somewhat fair point. I say that because if you were looking for a story where the connection was clearly outlined from the start (for example, me setting up a situation where he's immortal), then you would have been disappointed. However, I've tried to keep some of the core concepts of the character the same – namely, the fact that he _does_ have something darker inside of him which negatively affects more or less his entire life, albeit in a different manner than canon Naruto.

At any rate, I hope that the connection to the actual world of Naruto has become clearer by now. Hopefully you'll keep on reading and see that the key component of the story's final act is a relatively direct crossover link. One that I hope will be a breath of fresh air, when we get to it.

XXXXX

Waking up next to Carol had to be one of the best things that Naruto had ever experienced. Especially considering that she was only in her underwear.

Possibly the only silver-lining with Jennifer's avoidance of him was that it allowed him to become much closer to Carol in a very short time; they were having somewhat of a whirlwind romance, and Naruto loved every second of it.

"Mnn… why're you up so early?"

Naruto decided to be honest.

"Haaa… well, it's pretty hard to get a long sleep what with all of the nightmares and all that."

Carol wasn't so groggy anymore.

"Oh… I'm sorry, Naruto… I…"

Not trusting her words to convey her message, she settled for kissing him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and putting her head on his shoulder.

"Man, I will never get tired of that."

He leaned down to kiss her.

"I don't know how I deserve you…You're beautiful…. strong….. confident…caring."

With every item he listed, he would bend his head down to claim her lips again, with the pauses getting longer as their kissing grew more heated. Carol felt like her heart was going to burst due to all of the emotions she was experiencing.

Before Naruto could open his mouth again, Carol put a hand on his cheek.

"Naruto…"

And then she gave him a command that he absolutely could not refuse.

"Shut up and get naked."

The strange nightmares about a blindfolded statue could wait.

XXXXX

Naruto looked across the table at the silent brown-haired woman sitting with him, waiting for her to say something. Honestly, it's not that he was against talking again; it was just that… his throat was really dry from basically carrying the conversation the whole time.

"Hey Naruto…"

Naruto heard Jennifer's disheartened voice and sighed once more.

"Jen, how many times do I have to tell you? I forgive you. Really. Stop sweatin it. I'm fine, and you're still my best friend, okay?"

Damn, he could have sworn that in the past four months they had had some version of this exchange at least a hundred times. Thankfully, it seemed to be getting through to her, as her face took on a lighter expression and she sent him a small smile.

Still, it had been a real pain in the ass trying to reach her, considering that it had looked like she was actively avoiding him.

For her part, it was true. She had been avoiding him, but it was only out of concern – for him. To be frank, she still didn't trust herself around him. Although, sitting across from him now, she was beginning to question why she had ever kept her distance; when they were together, her whole world seemed to be brighter.

"So, Jen… how've you been? How's the lawyer thing goin?"

"Ah… I've been good. It's strange, not being… the other me. Just being a lawyer and not a hero… an Avenger. But I've been getting used to it. I'm getting better." She spent a lot of her free time feeling guilty and looking at Naruto's name in her contact list, until they had reconnected. She couldn't bear the thought of being She-Hulk again, because of what she had done. Although… seeing him on a semi-regular basis again was definitely the highlight of her life recently.

She put a hand on his arm.

"And you? Are you alright?"

She was trying to ask him about his emotional health, given what Carol had told her about his work for Fury, and the toll it took on him. Her intuition told her that something was off.

Unfortunately for her, she was about to be proven right. And not in the way she had imagined.

He didn't notice any of her trepidation.

"Well, things have been good! Uh… let's see. Carol and I are dating now. Have been for around four months, I'd say, since that's when the… team…. Uh… since that's when she flew solo. So… yeah! It's been great! We've –"

Whatever he kept saying, she wasn't paying too much attention. When she heard the words, "Carol and I are dating," she felt something crack a little in her chest. But she knew that he deserved better… someone who hadn't tried to kill him.

She turned her focus back to his voice in an effort to keep her mind off of what she had just learned, so that she wouldn't tear up in public.

"-And she's really been helpin me with… work-related stress."

He was her most precious friend, and she would be happy if he was happy. And even though he was dating Ms. Marvel…

"Work-related stress? That reminds me… what have you been doing lately?"

Of course, she had known for a while, but she wanted – no, now she needed – him to confide in her willingly, without being pushed directly.

"Oh… well, since you're… maybe… maybe we should have this conversation someplace else, then."

She really shouldn't do what she was about to do. She knew that it was wrong, and that she should just let her friend be. But She-Hulk's boldness and Jennifer's emotional attachment to her blonde friend were working together now, pushing her forward.

And she was too weak to resist.

"My… my apartment's open… especially now, since the Mansion is… well –"

Naruto gave her the grin that she loved so much, which she had seen increasingly little of as time went on.

"Great! Say no more, Jen!"

XXXXX

Jennifer paid as much attention as she could to what the blonde was saying. It was just difficult, considering that she actually already knew the most important information that he was giving her.

And unbeknownst to her, he was definitely not going to be telling her – or anyone – the full truth about his powers. He saw what happened to the Scarlet Witch. Of course, he didn't know that Jennifer was only half-focused on what he was saying.

The reason for her lack of attention was that she _knew_ that she shouldn't do what she was _very_ strongly thinking about doing. It was even more difficult to concentrate because of how they were seated: they were sitting together on her couch, with her leaning on his side and his arm around her shoulders.

As if trying to gauge the situation, Jennifer reached her arm out and grabbed his hand. When he, thinking that she was trying to be supportive, squeezed back, she made her choice.

But she knew that she wasn't brave enough as Jennifer Walters. She-Hulk needed to come back out. So she did.

When Naruto saw Jennifer start going green, he could honestly say that he was _not_ scared. Didn't mean that he wasn't nervous as all hell though. Even though he had survived their previous, violent encounters, he was _so_ not ready to deal with this right now.

That was why he internally sighed with relief when she looked at him with no signs of being anything short of one hundred percent in control. His relief was short-lived, however, when she started looking at him with something else in her eyes. It was also tough to ignore how her now ripped and ruined clothes showed off She-Hulk's ridiculously toned body.

"Naruto…"

The warmth in her voice sent a shiver up and down his spine. That paled in comparison, however, to what he felt when she leaned down, put both hands on his face, and kissed him.

On her end, she had never felt anything quite like what she was feeling now. Sure, she had kissed other men, but those kisses… comparing her feelings about them was like comparing a flashlight to the brightness of the sun. And, she noted with delight, he was most definitely not doing anything other than responding.

That is, until his eyes snapped open again when he abruptly remembered that he was already in what he thought was a relatively serious relationship. Putting his hands on her shoulders and pushing back, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart, Naruto spoke.

"Jen, we can't do this. _I_ can't do this… I'm seeing Carol… I'm sorry."

She looked back at him amorously.

"Why stop such a good thing?"

He knew that if he let her kiss him again, he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, so he took her hands off of his face, stood up, and made to beat a hasty retreat.

"I… Sorry Jen… I – we'll talk soon, okay? I mean it… I'll get in touch with you soon…"

As he walked out of her door, confused and happy at the same time, he offhandedly thought that even though his powers were already making him crazy, the two women in his life would definitely be the ones to finish the job.

After he left, Jennifer closed the door and leaned against the nearest wall, letting out a sigh as she did so. There was no question: it was definitely worth it.

_And_, he definitely _only_ resisted her advance because he was in a relationship, and not because he didn't care about her…

She blushed a little, and the little crack in her heart was fixed with industrial strength glue.

XXXXX

As he was walking back, trying to clear his head, Naruto found just the distraction that he was looking for.

The Lizard. Doing god-knows-what out in the daylight. And Naruto didn't care. While he normally hated situations like this… he just needed something to vent his frustrations out on, to take his focus away from the fact that his emotions were in turmoil.

XXXXX

When he was the Lizard, Curt Connors normally shied away from such things as, "showing up in the middle of the day in New York City," because that was essentially begging the various superheroes around the city to show up and fight him. And even though he was a reptile, he wasn't an idiot, and more importantly, he had survival instincts.

Fighting Spiderman, Captain America, and whoever the hell else was around explicitly clashed with those instincts. Yet, something was drawing him to the surface. It was calling to the most primal part of his nature, until the only things he could even recognize were his fury and his need to dominate. Most importantly, he needed to find whatever it was that was calling him. He couldn't resist the call of darkness.

His searching was interrupted by a foot planting itself firmly into his face, sending him crashing backwards into a car. As those few civilians who had not already fled in terror made to do just that, Connors looked up to see who had struck him.

It wasn't his usual foe, Spiderman, nor was it anyone that he even recognized. Oh, so a minor leaguer looking to stop _him_?

He would teach this blonde upstart who the dominant species was.

Or at least, he would have if the blonde hadn't picked him up and _thrown_ him back into the street, before planting a foot on his chest with strength far beyond what normal humans should be capable of, even at their peak.

XXXXX

As Naruto pinned the reptilian man, he began focusing the fire towards the bottom of his foot, trying to make flames shoot out of his sole.

It worked. Purple flame began to fan out from where Naruto's foot was pinning the Lizard to the ground, and to drive it in, he began grinding his now ruined shoe into his enemy's chest.

"Why are you here? To kill some innocent people?! Kill some kids?!"

_**monstermonstermonstermonstermonster**_

Before he could continue, Curt Connors lashed out in pain and anger, slashing Naruto's calves in a move that would have permanently debilitated any normal human.

Sadly, Naruto wasn't any ordinary human. While it did have the intended effect of forcing the blonde off of him, allowing him to roll over onto his feet and try to shrug off the intense pain in his torso… the blonde's injuries didn't slow him down in the slightest, it seemed.

Being used to the intense pain associated with regeneration by now, Naruto ignored his legs with ease, and pulled out a titanium-alloy garrote. He was trained to always be ready, and the garrote was lethal, compact, and deadly. The strength of the cable would also probably be enough to handle the Lizard's super strength, if he was only on or below the level of Spiderman.

Crazy what you could have made for you if all of your work involved the underworld in some way or another.

The lizard was just a strong savage, no matter who the man beneath it was. This wouldn't be a problem.

_**superiorsuperiorsuperiorsuperiorsuperior**_

Rushing forward and ducking under the lizard-man's angry swipe with ease, Naruto turned and stomped in the Lizard's kneecap with a kick that would have made even someone on the level of Thor take notice.

When Connors furiously lashed out in rage, after the pain forced him to kneel on his one good knee, Naruto sidestepped him again, getting a standing position right behind him. He made sure to stomp on his tail and begin burning it, so as to not be taken by surprise.

"You're not gonna enjoy this… lucky for you, I'll finish it quickly!"

Before his opponent could react, Naruto threw the garrote cable around his neck, clenched his fingers around the handles, and then pulled it taut.

If he was only at the level he was at when he had just joined SHIELD, then this absolutely would not have worked. But now? After what his body had been through?

Strangling the Lizard to death was nothing.

_**killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill**_

Naruto used the voice in his head to fuel his rage.

"You're not gonna hurt anyone today… or ever again! Hrnnn!"

Grunting out as he pulled back as hard as he could, Naruto felt the Lizard's resistance against the cable start to weaken.

_**killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill**_

XXXXX

Peter Parker was always quick to the scene whenever one of his enemies was sighted up to no good in the city, and that proved to be the case here as well. The thing that made this situation interesting was that this time, Spiderman wasn't the first one to arrive.

"Hey buddy! Does PETA know what you're doing here!"

Naruto looked up just in time to catch a web to the face, knocking him back a few steps, and more importantly, forcing him to let go of his garrote. Not that it mattered. Even though the Lizard wasn't quite dead yet, he was definitely going to be unconscious for a while – long enough for him to finish the job.

Spiderman's spider sense was going haywire as he moved to engage the blonde, after checking Doctor Connors for a pulse. He was shocked when he looked up and saw his webbing melting off of the blonde's steaming face. But before he could begin his usual banter, the admittedly intimidating blonde spoke first.

"Why'd you save him?"

Ah. So one of those types. He'd dealt with the Punisher before, he knew how this went.

"He was already beaten! You don't –"

"Beating him once won't make him change his ways! Every innocent person he kills is your fault! By letting him go, you're not doing anything except delaying his victims' deaths!" The blonde interjected loudly.

_**hatehatehatehatehatehatehatehate**_

"It's not our right to choose who lives and who dies! Once you make that decision, you can never go back! It never ends!" Peter yelled in return. He was wrong earlier: the Punisher didn't strike a chord like this guy did.

_**cowardcowardcowardcowardcowardcowardcoward**_

"You're just a coward! You think your moral superiority is more important than the lives of others! You've made your choice – you not losing any sleep at night is worth more than the pain of every orphaned child, every parent who's _ever_ had to bury their kid! Well I've made my choice too! Now **stand aside or be moved aside!**" Naruto continued yelling, his voice taking on a darker, more menacing quality at the end, violence hanging around every word.

Naruto was sick of having to do all of the dirty work, while others basked in the love and adoration bestowed upon them. Their mistakes didn't mean their lives. These superheroes weren't feared for their power…

_**killkillkillkillkillkillkill**_

If he looked too dangerous – too strong – he would be put down like an animal and tossed aside like a broken knife.

Peter saw the blonde shooting fire at the Kree like he was giving out party favors, and he had also heard about him walking away from She-Hulk's backbreaker… Looked like he was going to have to take this one seriously.

As luck would have it, some serious back up arrived at his side.

"Stand down, son. Before I _make_ you stand down!"

Captain America slowed to a stop next to Peter, looking as commanding as ever.

_**hatehatehatehatehatehatehate**_

Naruto just gave them a wild grin.

"_**Make**_** me stand down? Haha! The only thing you've got is blindsiding me once! But if you idiots really wanna throw hands with **_**me**_**…**" He trailed off menacingly.

"I knew I should have done something about you before… I won't make that mistake again." Steve Rogers grimaced.

"**For what? Killing the Skull!? The enemy that you were unable to finish off!? Vision!? The robot that betrayed you!? Everything I've done has been for the safety of others! And now that I'm looking a little dangerous, a little too strong, you're going to do away with me!? Like you did the Scarlet Witch!?" **He screamed out, sounding wilder and wilder with every sentence, as violet flames burst to life, engulfing both of his arms.

Captain America's face grew even tighter.

"I overlooked how unstable you looked with Vision because you're friends with both Jennifer and Carol… That's not going to happen again."

"Uh, Cap… I don't think talking's going to do any good here." Spiderman stated the obvious, as Naruto took a step towards them, clearly with the intention of fighting them. He saw Captain America pull the famous shield off of his back in preparation.

"Naruto! Stop this! Please! This isn't you!"

Peter looked up to see Ms. Marvel swooping in, Iron Man in tow.

Captain America was just as confused.

"What're you two doing here?"

Iron Man's metal head turned his way.

"Please. You think we wouldn't hear about Captain America and Spiderman about to team up against some new super villain, with a knocked out Lizard between them? This is New York. People hear about this stuff – oh yeah, and we kind of live here too."

Carol turned her head sharply.

"He's not a villain! He's just… I don't know! Something's wrong! Let me talk to him!"

Tony took a closer look.

"Oh, hey! I recognize that guy! He's your friend that Jennifer tried to treat like a Kit-Kat bar!"

Carol let him know how much she appreciated that by giving him the fiercest glare she had.

"**So you're in on this too, eh Carol? G –**"

"No! No! Let's just talk. Please." She pleaded, as she began taking slow steps forward.

"Carol! Stay back! He's not your friend anymore!" Steve cried out, worrying that she would pay for trusting the other blonde.

She didn't miss a beat.

"You're right! He's not my friend! He's my boyfriend!"

Whatever Steve was going to say after that died in his throat, out of shock.

_**notrustnotrustnotrustnotrustnotrustnotrustnotrustnononononononono**_

Everything in Naruto's body was screaming at him to stop her before she got too close – that she would just use the opportunity to attack him. Even though his first instinct was to blast her, he just shot a plume of fire upwards with an angry yell, before looking at her again.

"Yeah… we can talk." He managed to grind out, without making it too obvious that he felt like every square inch of his chest had been filled with knives. He felt like crying, but not from the physical pain.

With every major incident, it was getting harder and harder to pull himself back… he was terrified that he wasn't too far away from the edge.

He was surprised to find that he actually had started crying.

"Naruto! You're bleeding!"

Oh. It turned it out that his nose had started bleeding again. A lot. And his tears? Those weren't tears. Small rivulets of blood were running from his eyes.

"Heh. Well that ain't good. I'm fine, Care-bear. Probably happened sometime against the Lizard." It was a weak excuse, and Naruto knew that. Thankfully, Carol let it slide. For now, at least.

Wiping his eyes and nose with her glove, Carol hugged him tightly, before speaking to him in a quiet voice.

"Naruto… let's just get away from all of this for a while… Go on a vacation. We can just spend some time together… You can tell me anything, you know?"

The spiky-haired blonde responded with a chaste kiss, before telling her that that sounded like a great idea.

He then raised his head and looked at the other three heroes, focusing his attention in particular on the two that he had almost fought.

"Sorry, fellas. My bad! You guys do what you want with the Lizard. Let's just let bygones be bygones, eh?" Naruto knew that they weren't happy with that, and to be honest, neither was he. But he recognized the better option.

Captain America stepped forward, pointing a gloved finger towards Naruto.

"Don't step out of line again, because if you do, Carol's boyfriend or not, we _will_ take you down."

Naruto's eyes widened in challenge.

"Well let's just hope it doesn't come to that, _captain_."

As Naruto wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's waist, Ms. Marvel took another look back at the three of them, as if daring them to stop her, before she took off into the sky, holding Naruto with both arms.

Spiderman incredulously asked, "that's it!? We're just letting him go!?"

They didn't really have a great reason to follow or arrest him, since technically the only thing that he did was stop a known criminal…

Captain America grit his teeth.

"No. I think we'll run into him again."

XXXXX

It was odd, Jennifer mused, that she could feel so guilty about something while not regretting it at the same time.

Yes, kissing her best friend who was involved with another woman was the wrong thing to do, so she felt guilty about it. On the other hand, she had finally come to terms with the fact that she was in love with her best friend, and kissing him was the best thing she could have done.

Funny that being in love could make her feel so confused and yet so happy at the same time. But by no means was she confused about her feelings: that was really the most sensible part of the whole affair. He had reached out to her in high school, when she was just a shy bookworm in high school. He was always there if she faltered, and he had unconditionally forgiven her both times that she had attacked him. He was the rarest of people – someone to be cherished – and for that, she couldn't _not_ love him.

When she had finally stopped thinking about their kiss, she was forced to see the blonde object of her affections in the news, facing down Captain America and Spiderman earlier in the day. And while her first reaction was to be consumed with worry, even though the situation seemed to have resolved itself in the end, the next thing she did was start thinking about how it would feel to be in a relationship with him.

Sure, she had been much more flirtatious since becoming She-Hulk, but… none of them could really hold her gaze for more than a very short time. Not like he could.

She looked down at her vibrating phone to see that the blonde had just texted her, saying that he was outside.

Well, speak of the devil. She didn't doubt him when he said that he would get in touch with her, she just didn't think that it would be so… soon.

Quickly running to and opening the front door as Jennifer Walters, she was surprised to see Naruto looking rather sad.

Without stepping inside, he began to speak.

"Jennifer… about earlier…"

Her heart started racing when he proceeded to grab onto her hands tightly.

When it looked like he hadn't been able to convey all of his emotions through that gesture, Naruto started talking again, this time to a wide-eyed and flushed Jennifer.

"Jennifer… we've been through a lot… and I want you to know that I consider our bond special…and that I feel the same about you…that… I…that I love you. But I'm seeing Carol right now… and not only does she deserve better, but… I think that I might… love her too. Because of that…I can't just leave her… not without seeing where it leads… I'm sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, but…"

He trailed off, not knowing what to say, or how she would react.

Jennifer's heart was swelling with emotion, but not in the way that Naruto was thinking. He was caught completely off guard when she gave him one of the purest smiles he had ever seen.

"Maybe it's not _exactly_ what I wanted to hear… but… knowing that you love me is enough, Naruto… I can wait… and even if it never happens… I'll always be with you – by your side."

The dam that held back Naruto's emotional weakness shattered. He felt overwhelmed by the sentiment that she had just expressed, the sheer sincerity and loyalty in the statement driving him to the edge.

There was also the matter of the almost oppressive guilt that was surging through, because of the fact that he thought that he would always do everything in his power to make his best friend happy, and this time… he just couldn't. Not now.

He could hold it back no longer. Crying, he rushed forward and embraced his longtime friend with everything that he had.

"I… I –"

Naruto gave up on trying to speak, so powerful were his emotions. He settled for letting the tears run down his face and onto Jennifer's shirt, his grip desperate as he sobbed profusely.

Jennifer was also crying now, as she returned the embrace of the person she loved the most in the world. They stayed there, in their own universe, for what seemed like an eternity.

As his sobbing subsided, he pulled back without taking his arms from around her. They exchanged watery gazes and heartfelt smiles, and Naruto found the strength to continue talking.

"Jennifer… I'm going to go away for a while – with Carol. I don't know where, or even for how long… I need to get away from all of this… I-I don't want you to ever forget that –"

Jennifer put a finger to his lips to silence him.

"Shh… you don't need to say it… I know," she whispered, before moving to hug him again.

XXXXX

Magneto looked at his old friend with tired eyes.

"I've hurt Wanda so much… her and her brother. I have to set it right. Can you help her, Charles?"

Charles Xavier gave as much as he could.

"I'll try, Erik."

XXXXX

"So, Care-bear… Paris it is?"

Carol threw him a playful scowl.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?"

"Aw, but you're so cuddly!" He laughed out.

She slapped his arm in response. He was totally fine, of course…

But damn that shit stung!

XXXXX

Steve Rogers wasted no time in getting straight to the point.

"Fury, who is Naruto Uzumaki? Are we sure he's on our side?"

He had overlooked the other blonde because he hadn't seemed like a threat… and some part of him _was_ pleased with the fact that the Skull was dead.

But now, after seeing his willingness to fight both Spiderman and himself, the fact that he didn't seem to have any qualms about killing, and the fact that he was able to subdue and nearly kill the Lizard – not an easy feat, by any means – meant that he was quickly becoming a priority.

"He's an affiliate. That's all you need to know, Captain."

Captain America's patience was being tested.

"With all due respect, sir, it's not. He was perfectly willing to fight both Spiderman and myself, and even before that, he was going to kill Vision. He beat a man's corpse!"

Fury turned his one eye the captain's way.

"From what I've been told, Spiderman struck first. Vision _betrayed_ the Avengers, and carried Ultron copies into battle… and the corpse? The Red Skull. If that's all, then I'll be going now. I have more important things to worry about."

As he walked away, Nick Fury acknowledged internally that what he had just said was a more blatant lie than even he was used to telling; he just didn't like revealing his hand. As of now, he actually had very few things to worry about that were more important than the questions surrounding the blonde agent.

He had readily granted the blonde an extended leave from duty, seeing as it gave him time to analyze what the _hell_ had happened to him, and how both his combat potential and threat level had shot through the roof recently.

Going from a fit human with the power to shoot fire, to a combatant capable of surviving a brutal attack from She-Hulk, tearing through copies of Ultron, and easily dispatching the Lizard, _alone_?

A man who initially had issues with doing the jobs that Fury assigned for him, now willing to fight two of the world's most recognizable superheroes in order to kill the Lizard, in _broad daylight_, in _New York City_, of all places?

It didn't add up, and Nicholas Fury absolutely hated being surprised.

XXXXX

Stephen Strange sat in his sanctum, across from Charles Xavier.

"Stephen, I have spent months treating Wanda Maximoff, and I am no closer to a solution than when I started. My province is the mind… her problem is just as much the spirit. I need your help – I don't know where to begin."

Donning the garb of the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange reassured him.

"Let's get to work."

XXXXX

When Carol woke up next to her peacefully sleeping boyfriend, she took note of the bottled wine still in the bucket they had used to chill it; the other bottle had been opened and discarded the night before.

Naruto opened one of his eyes to see Carol leaning on her elbow, looking down at him with a smile.

"Mornin, Care-bear."

Normally, she wouldn't have considered saying what she was about to say. But it seemed that waking up in bed with her boyfriend after a romantic evening really put her in a lovely mood.

"Naruto… I love you."

That got Naruto to open up both eyes in a flash.

When he didn't respond after a few seconds, Carol became nervous.

"Oh god… I messed up, didn't I? I've never told a guy that I loved them –"

Naruto cut her off by chuckling and cupping her cheek.

"Carol… you definitely have not done anything wrong."

He followed his reassurance by kissing her, and she responded by giving him a beautiful smile.

She didn't think that she could feel any happier.

XXXXX

"What are you doing here, Pietro?" Magneto said, as he took in the sight of his silver-haired son.

Quicksilver didn't turn around from his position, kneeling beside Wanda Maximoff's bed.

"They're going to kill her."

"What?"

Pietro stood and turned around this time.

"They're going to kill her! Xavier… the rest… the Avengers, the X-men. They are meeting right now in New York. They are going to decide that there's no other way, and they are going to come here and kill her. My sister! Your own daughter!"

Erik Lehnsherr looked on quietly.

"Maybe they're right."

Pietro started screaming at him.

"The Avengers were our family! Now they're going to kill her – and you _agree_!?"

Magneto looked back at him with angry, tired eyes.

"What would you have me do?!" He grabbed a fistful of Quicksilver's shirt.

"What would you have me do!?"

Pietro Maximoff had no response other than to grab on tightly to Magneto's clothes, as he slid down to his knees, sobbing, kneeling before his father.

Nearly in tears himself, Magneto took in the sleeping form of his daughter.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, a heated debate was going on in a conference room in New York, just as Quicksilver had described.

"If the world found out that a _mutant_ was responsible for destroying the Avengers – that a mutant with reality-altering powers was somewhere out there with a screw loose – it would set mutant-human relations back to the Stone Age. That would be the end for us." Emma Frost voiced decisively.

Captain America voiced his own doubts.

"I won't even entertain the thought," he stated, getting nods and voiced agreements from the other members of the currently disbanded team.

"Someone do the math for me… how many more of you does she have to kill before you'll snap out of it?" Wolverine cut in.

"So, like, if any of my powers whiz out on me, I can count on you to just kill me?"

Logan looked back at Spiderman and grimly responded, "Yeah. Hope I can count on you to do the same."

The Wasp put an end to the debate.

"Wanda was like a sister to me. I need to see her. Charles, can you and Ms. Frost protect us from Wanda if there's trouble?"

"Together, we can," Doctor Strange finally cut in.

Peter Parker just sighed in response.

"Oy… I'm not gonna be home in time for dinner, am I?"

XXXXX

Not long after the combined teams arrived on the ruined island of Genosha, they discovered that Magneto had seemingly taken his daughter and fled – oddly enough, neither Xavier nor Stephen Strange could locate them.

And then, members of the team started disappearing.

XXXXX

Walking along the Champs-Élysées with Carol, Naruto couldn't help but agree with whoever had said that it was the most beautiful avenue in the world. Maybe he was biased, since he was seeing it while walking hand in hand with his girlfriend.

Speaking of…

"So what's the plan? Maybe a nice moonlit dinner?"

Carol smiled at him playfully.

"Geez Naruto… who'd have thought that you were such a romantic? But yes, that sounds like a great idea."

"Awesome."

As the blonde male turned his head to take in some of the sights, he felt Carol's hand leave his own.

"Hm? Care-bear?" When he looked back to see what had caught her interest, he saw something that terrified him.

Nothing. She was gone. It was as if she had vanished. And the same was true of almost everyone else who had been on the previously crowded street.

"Carol!? CAROL?!"

And then all he saw was white.

XXXXX


End file.
